How 3D-printed House Was Built In a Week
Engineering firm Arup and architecture studio CLS Architetti collaborated on the project, which was exhibited during Milan design week this year.
Named 3D Housing 05, the structure was printed within Milan’s Piazza Cesare Beccaria square in just a week. After construction, the 100-square-meter house contained a living area, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and was topped with a roof terrace.
The house’s curved walls were printed by a compact and mobile robot, which can print a single wall in 60 to 90 minutes. The machine was designed by Cybe Construction – a 3D-printing company from the Netherlands
The walls were printed with a special mix of recycled concrete, using debris from demolition sites, which cures in five minutes. The mix was developed by one of the world’s largest suppliers of cement Italcementi and can be recycled after a building has been demolished.
CLS Architetti told Dezeen that the project aimed to demonstrate that with 3D-printing technology housing can be built quickly and cheaply.
According to Massimiliano Locatelli, principal architect at CLS, the cost of 3D printing a single square meter is currently €1,000 (£890) half the average price of traditional construction. Locatelli predicts that as the method becomes more advanced, this figure will drop to around €200 to €300 (£178 to £267) per square meter.
3D printing is efficient as the printer works quickly and reduces the amount of man-hours put into a single building. The process also only uses the exact amount of raw materials needed for each component, thereby reducing waste produced during construction.
The house exhibited during Milan design week was only a prototype, however, CLS Architetti aims to improve on the building method to make it sustainable for building long-term housing.