3D prints illustrate 12 diverse new yorkers with one thing in common: they live alone 

‘watertight’ is a 3D-printed archive of infrastructures and the lone people that inhabit them. it’s a philosophy. it’s an ideology. it’s storytellers’ ziv schneider and caitlin robinson’s documentation of human adaptation in cities like Manhattan (where over half of all households are now single households). while the average number of people per home is continuing to fall, these cloudy specimen capture the joy and the sorrow, the vulnerability and the freedom, of contemporary, isolated, living.

watertight follows new yorkers from diverse backgrounds who have one thing in common: they live alone 
all images courtesy of caitlin robinson and ziv schneider

the process for creating these tiny moments went something like this. first, rooms were scanned. cramped new york studios, spacious condos for high-income singles, affordable boarding houses, suburban homes: for every socio-ecamonic situation, there are those living alone. after these rooms were scanned and the environmental information was collected, the software program ‘skanect’ converted the information points into a digital mesh.  the mesh was then archived and the computing process, ‘watertight,’ was applied; the watertight algorithm rounded the meshes, filled in holes, and translated the digital homes into printable, palm-sized stories.

the small portraits illustrate a sweeping phenomenon 

these single-occupant replicas were made from thousands of liquid photopolymer layers. binding each of these layers: a UV-light-cured plastic that securely holds the walls of a studio apartment intact, and freezes a woman, standing tall and content at the center of her red rug, alone forever.

the condo | contemporary real estate developments for an high income lifestyle

the boarding house | a starting point for those making their own way in life

the supportive housing | a city’s solution f0r homeless individuals

the studio | a lifestyle household for singles living in big cities

the single resident occupancy | meets the demand for affordable housing

the suburbs | constructed residential idealism

project info:

created by
caitlin robinson & ziv schneider

3D printing
laguardia studio, nyu

illustrations
emily bell dinan

design consulting
dalit shalom
nitzan hermon

fabrication cosultant
shir david

special thanks
jes k fan, lior zalmanson, shalev moran, cara francis, kristin lucas, yotam rozin, katherine dillon, and the people who have let us into their homes and allowed us to capture them: alee, amelia, dalit, emily, jerry, lamora, margaret, marc, mei-ling, rob, shir, thelma and vitaly

more details – contact
[email protected]