How 3D Printing can revolutionize construction?
In the next decade, about 3 billion people will require improved housing. This means we will need to create 96,000 new homes every single day. The 3D printing technology enables us to create high-quality, low-cost accommodation in a fraction of the time compared to traditional construction methods.
Many personal and commercial properties have been constructed using a 3D printing machine in recent times.
At 3D Motifs we are crazy about 3D Printing. Hence, this article will not be like the thousand other pieces on the boom and bust model of the 3D printing construction industry.
We will instead be focussing on a few of the early projects from around the world. We will also discuss how exactly a house is built with 3D Printing. 3D Printing and its applications have become more widespread, It has spread beyond the manufacturing industry.
Projects have already used 3D technology to print food and even organs such as kidneys!
The world of dental science has also found real-life, cost-reducing solutions through 3D Printing techniques.
Since our folks at 3D Motifs are crazy about 3D Printing, this article will not be like the thousand other pieces on the boom and bust model of the 3D printing construction industry.
3D Printed House Project in China
The project we are talking about comes from a project headed by Professor Ma Yihe of the Institute of FAFU. His project built a completely 3D-printed house.
The house was printed totally with robotic arm printers. The idea behind the whole thing was to show how 3D Printing could utilize this technology to construct low-cost and environmentally friendly homes.
3D Printed House Project in Italy
TECLA is an entirely 3D printed global habitat based on natural materials.
TECLA’s construction started as a prototype in 2019 near Bologna, Italy, to respond to pressing societal issues of explosive population growth, which inevitably led to a lack of affordable accommodation.TECLA is created using entirely reusable, recyclable materials taken from the local terrain – it aims to be a model for circular housing and eco-housing. The habitat was designed by Mario Cucinella Architects and brought to life by WASP’s engineering and printing tech.
In addition, TECLA is set to be the first house to be entirely 3D-printed using locally sourced clay.
Used for centuries in countries like India as a cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternative to cement – clay is biodegradable, recyclable material that will make the building a zero-waste structure.
3D Printed House in the Netherlands
Project Milestone is a five-house project in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. The first completed house already has occupants – Harrie Dekkers and Elize Lutz – is the first legally habitable 3D-printed house in Europe.
Their home has 94m2 of floorspace on one story and was built as part of a collaboration between Eindhoven University of Technology, the Municipality of Eindhoven, and private sector businesses.
The house is designed to resemble the shape of a large boulder and blend in sympathetically with its natural surroundings.
Creating curves quickly is just one of the advantages 3D printing has over traditional construction methods.
3D Printed House Project in the Czech Republic
Prvok is the name of this project. It is the first 3D printed house in the Czech Republic built by Michal Trpak, a sculptor, and Stavebni Sporitelna Ceske Sporitelny, a notable member of the Erste building society.
The house is designed to float and only takes 48 hours to build! Not only is that seven times faster than traditional houses, but it also reduces construction costs by 50%.
Furthermore, no bricks, cement, and concrete (responsible for 8% of CO2 emissions alone!) are used, which means it reduces carbon emissions by 20% – imagines how much CO2 could be reduced if this was used to build a colony.
A robotic arm called Scoolpt, designed by Jiri Vele, an architect and programmer will be used in 3D Printing and print as fast as 15 cm per second.
3D Printed Housing project in Dubai
Dubai Municipality has completed a two-story integrated building project with a height of 9.5 meters at a total area of 640 square meters through 3D printing technology.
It is the largest and first 3D printed two-story structure in the world, executed by undertaking 3D Printing onsite directly under external working conditions and using local components.
The Municipality had equipped itself with all the facilities to deal with modern technology in the construction field that achieves Dubai’s 3D printing strategy, intending to make Dubai a global capital for 3D printing technology.
How is a house 3D Printed?
The house covers approximately 1,000 square feet. According to the 3, it took about 45 days to print it using an industrial robot printer.
The printer prints the walls layer by layer, and each layer is around 0.5 millimeters thick.
Materials used to 3D Printed house
The materials used for Printing are mainly made of concrete, glass fiber, and plastic. To make the construction process faster, the team is currently working on a system that will allow it to print two floors simultaneously.
Cost of 3D Printing a House
The cost of this technology is still relatively high, but should come down in the future as the technology becomes more widespread. The benefits of using 3D Printing for house construction include:
Environmentally friendly, as it reduces the production of cement, which results in a reduction of carbon dioxide.
3D Printing requires less human labor during construction and this also implies a reduced cost.
Compared to traditional houses, 3D Printed houses are more structurally sound solid.
All these projects were completed without any injury or accident on site. This shows that 3D Printed construction may be safer, not just more efficient than traditional methods.
With continued innovation and development, 3D Printing for house construction will soon become a mainstream method.
