The Fibonacci House, a spiraling concrete tiny house in the wilds of southeast British Columbia that grabbed headlines earlier this year as Canada’s first-ever permitted 3D-printed dwelling, is now enjoying an additional superlative as the first-ever 3D-printed property to be listed on Airbnb.
When considering that everything from river barges to retired school buses to 30-foot-tall beagles are among the wildly varied accommodations available on Airbnb, the arrival of a 3D-printed home on the vacation rental platform seemed inevitable, if not belated.
Designed and built by Dutch construction technology startup Twente Additive Manufacturing (TAM), the 377-square-foot structure is true to its namesake sequence and features a curvilinear form approximating the golden ratio. Built from only 20 parts, the structure was printed offsite in a factory by TAM in just 11 days and then assembled at its woodsy permanent location at Procter Point within the Kootenay Lake Village development. Non-printed parts, including the home’s roof, window frames, and lofted sleeping area, were built using locally sourced fir and cedar.
Described by additive manufacturing news website 3D Printing Industry as a “lavish” and “compact yet luxuriously-upholstered holiday home,” the seashell-esque Fibonacci House is, in reality, a bit more pared-down than that. Sparsely but comfortably furnished and diminutive in size, the home can fit up to four guests in its ladder-accessible and netted-in sleeping loft. The fully plumbed abode also features a kitchenette, a tiled bathroom with shower, and, of course, complimentary WiFi. Outside, a spacious covered porch area comes equipped with furnishings and the requisite BBQ grill. There’s also an adjacent garden.
This is the type of Airbnb property, however distinctive, where the highly scenic location is the star attraction. Hiking, biking, mountain-peeping, nature-communing, and swimming or boating in nearby Kootenay Lake, a fjord-like body of water formed by a river of the same name, are among the myriad outdoor activities available. Fibonacci House is a convenient launch/crash pad to partake in them. For culture-based excursions, the historic city of Nelson is also a short drive away.
There’s also an altruistic twist that comes attached to booking the lakeside rental for a night or a few. Funds from each individual rental (rates start at $164 per night) will directly support World Housing, a Vancouver-based affordable housing charity with a global reach. As detailed earlier this year by 3D Printing Media Network, the Fibonacci House was completed as a prototype home for a larger community of affordable, 3D-printed homes—the first of its kind in Canada—to be constructed in the Nelson-Kootenay Lake region by TAM with a range of local partners organizations and companies.
“What’s cool about 3D printing is after you program the house once then when we’re asked to do it again the printer can just keep printing the house over and over no matter where you drive the printer to,” Ian Comishin, co-founder and president of TAM, recently told Canadian real estate website STOREYS. “One project could be focused in BC, the next in the Yukon, and so on.”
As for the current availability of Fibonacci House, this summer looks to be pretty much booked up save for a few scattered dates, although August and beyond is currently wide open for those plotting an escape to rural interior British Columbia.
