Overview
Finding an effective way to cope with the ever-growing issue of urban density isn't easy. The more that big cities expand, the more crowded that they become. In a place like Tokyo that crams more than 37 million people into its metro area, it requires savvy thinking — such as a building that's also a vending machine, printing out the homes within its walls onsite and to order, perhaps?
Designed by architecture student Haseef Rafiei, the pod vending machine house-dispensing skyscraper dispatches new, customisable, affordable pods that are chosen by its residents. After deciding upon size and inclusions — if you don't want a kitchen, you don't need to get one, for example — each modular dwelling is made there and then, and then added to the building. The printer sits on top, and will get higher it adds more apartments to the structure; aka, it grows as the need for more housing grows. It's just a proposal at this stage, but it sounds impressive. Expanding your home, or using the pods for offices, is also mooted.
Basically, Rafiei has taken a busy city, 3D printing and tiny apartments, and thrown them into a futuristic blender to conceive the ultimate mashup. Taking inspiration from the avant-garde capsule structures proposed by Japan's Metabolist Movement in the '60s, his concept earned an honourable mention in architecture and design journal eVolo's 2017 Skyscraper Competition.
The innovative skyscraper offers an addition to Tokyo's skyline, provides a potential solution to the city's cramped housing situation and reflects its penchant for robotics and technology; however if you've ever been to the Japanese capital, you'll recognise that it nods to another important facet of everyday living in the bustling locale. That'd be its love of vending machines. Spotting them on every corner, even in residential areas, is just part of walking through the city. Maybe one day, spotting buildings that double as apartment-printing vending machines will be as well.
Image: eVolo.