Designer real estate for hermit crabs

Artist Aki Inomata builds fanciful new houses for hermit crabs.

Miniature windmills, churches, and even entire cities jut from the surface of her 3D-printed shells, which are modelled upon CT scans of abandoned crab shells and then recreated in transparent resin. Inomata then allows the homeless crabs to inspect the shelters at their leisure — she says “most hermit crabs don’t even glance at” them, but occasionally one of the creatures finds its dream real estate and settles in.

• 3D printing
• Aki Inomata
• architecture
• art