project EGG – 3D Printed Crowdsourced Building Set to be Unveiled This Month

There has been a lot of talk recently about 3D printed houses, 3D printed estates, and even 3D printed castles. While all of these stories are quite amazing, none of them are as unique as a project taking place all around the world, called ‘project EGG‘.

project EGG, takes the popular new idea of 3D printing buildings, and then adds a very unique crowdsourcing feature to it. Led by artist Michiel van der Kley, the project requires 4,760 unique individual ‘stones’ to be printed in order to completely construct the ‘EGG’.

Albert Falck, the owner of a 3D printing store in the Netherlands is one of the people taking part in this project, which has been open to everyone around the globe.

“I have printed 5 stones in my 3D printer store and did bring them this weekend to Tilburg, where they prepare and build the whole EGG,” Falck told 3DPrint.com. “It is created by an artist (Michel van der Kley) to explore the new boundaries in buildings and objects. I think around 600 people printed a stone as a contribution to build the EGG. Every stone is unique and contains the name of the person who has printed it (including myself and my family). When printed on their machine, they send it back to Holland and include a picture of their location and themselves. So many types of printers are used.”

Falck is only one of the many people who have contributed to this project by 3D printing individual ‘stones’ for the EGG. Even individuals without access to 3D printers are able to contribute by way of adopting a stone, through donating a small monetary sum. €8 allows you to adopt a stone, and forever have your name connected to it. €15 will get your name printed on your stone, and €50 will get you a copy of your very own stone with a closed bottom that you can use as a vase.

So far, like Falck mentioned, they have collected 641 stones from people all over the world, ranging from Portugal, to the US, to Australia, Croatia, and just about every other country you can think of.

“Project EGG is about 3D printing, the power of sharing and co-creating, about new ways to create and collaborate,” explained the project leaders.

Each stone has 4 screw holes in it to allow it to connect to the surrounding stones. When combined, they will form a giant translucent EGG building. The EGG is expected to be completed in time for an exhibition at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The event will take place starting October 18 and run until the 26th.

It should be interesting to see what comes about from this. This project, if nothing else, shows that crowdsourcing within the 3D printing space is something that can be done effectively. People enjoy becoming part of something historical, and that they will, with the first crowdsourced 3D printed building soon to be unveiled.

What do you think about this project? Have you contributed to it in any way? Discuss in the project EGG forum thread on 3DPB.com.  Check out the video below showing what the completed EGG will look like.