The world of 3D printing in architecture is evolving at lightning speed. A couple of years ago, companies were making small and basic (but beautiful still) hut-like homes. Today, Kamp C, a Belgian sustainable construction company, has 3D printed an entire two-story house in Europe. It’s the biggest home printed in one piece by a fixed printer ever made.
The firm used a 10 x 10 m (32-by-32 foot) printer – the largest model in Europe. It works similarly to smaller plastic-additive 3D printers except that it uses concrete (extruding a unique cement-like mixture out of a nozzle) to build the structure layer by layer.
Emiel Ascione, project manager at the firm, said:
[We used a] gantry printer delivered by COBOD [based in Denmark]. It was their prototype BOD2 [printer]. A gantry printer operates basically like the most common small plastic printers and uses the same type of software, [but on a much larger scale]. The concrete, the silo, as well as the mixing and pumping installation. were delivered by our partner Weber.
The house measures approximately 90 sq/m (around 970 sq/ft). The shell was built using the printer, then the foundation, roof, doors, windows, wiring, and finishing touches, as well as rebar, and some sections of hand-poured concrete for structural support were added by human laborers. The home also includes several innovative sustainable features, such as a heat pump, underfloor heating, and solar panels.
The entire project was completed on-site. It took three weeks, but Kamp C speculates the time-frame could be reduced to only two days in the future. Significantly faster construction time is one of the critical advantages of the 3D printing process over conventional builds. Another advantage is how precise and careful it is with material usage. Resultantly, there is great potential in cutting construction costs of projects.
Marijke Aerts, the project manager, said:
The material’s compressive strength is three times greater than that of the conventional quick build brick. Besides the fibers in the concrete, the amount of wire-mesh reinforcement used is extremely limited. As a result of the printing technology used, the formwork was redundant, saving an estimated sixty percent on material, time, and budget.
While this prototype structure is being referred to as a house, it’s not going to be lived in and was not intended for residential purposes. It was created for government-funded research and to highlight the possibilities of 3D printed architecture. They are calling it a house because it has the characteristics and dimensions of a residential dwelling. However, it will be used as a demonstration building for expos, conferences, and other events. The interior includes an entrance hall, a kitchen area, and two conference rooms.
Ascione said:
Printing this building is mainly a statement. It shows the construction industry the accessibility and potential of this technique. The benefits of additive manufacturing are already paying off in a wide range of other industries. It’s about time that housing caught up with them.
A huge benefit of this technique is that [it is free of] complexity. You could print a series of houses and make each of them unique without a considerable impact on the cost.
For now, Kamp C’s house is a proof of concept, one that will help pave the way for future residential homes to be lived in. This project, along with New Story’s 3D-printed neighborhood – the world’s first entirely 3D printed neighborhood being developed as proof that dignified housing can be the norm thanks to 3D printing technology – represent significant steps forward in 3D-printed architecture.
On that note, another beautiful example is Mario Cucinella Architects’ experimental homes crafted from the local terrain in Bologna, Italy – which could potentially offer a sustainable option for urban housing.
