A few months ago, a small, rural, earthy-looking structure sprang up in Shanghai’s Baoshan Wisdom Bay science and technology park. It is the Book Cabin designed by Tsinghua University architecture professor Xu Weiguo and some of his students. 

The peculiarity of this cabin is that it is entirely 3D printed, which means that apart from the design phase, construction of the structure required no human intervention apart from a couple of technicians who operated the machinery.

Robotic arms printed the entire cabin using fibre concrete developed by Xu Weigu’s team: the interior walls are designed to be smooth and clean, while the exterior walls are reminiscent of the earth and make the cabin look like a natural element emerging from the ground. 

The Book Cabin measures about thirty square metres and can accommodate about fifteen people. The name comes from the desire to use the intimate and isolated space for book presentations and academic meetings. 

The Book Cabin demonstrates that 3D printing may well be the future of construction.