3D Printed buildings gaining ground.

One of the largest 3D Printed building in the US is nearing completion in Florida. A 10,000 ft2 Horse Farm, with the building shell using the newish ( decade old) 3D printing technology. The foundation, roof, windows and fittings will be completed traditionally.

Meanwhile, Siam Cement Group ( SCG), built / printed the first Medical center Situated in Saraburi, Thailand. Using COBOD‘s BOD2 3D printer to construct this novel two-story building and being a cement company, cement is a key ingredient of concrete.

In Heidelberg, Germany, a 3D Printed space is nearing completion to house computer servers.

Krause Gruppe, contractor for the project, expects completion by July 2023. Just a couple of workers manage the giant printer.

How about breaking the record for the tallest 3D Printed building?

Dar Al Arkan, a Saudi developer, using a COBOD 3D construction printer is completing a 3 story building with a height of 9.9m ( about 33 Feet) and is therefore also the tallest on-site 3D printed building in the world. Not a very daunting height to a challenger!

Cobod, a leader in the printing technology, has developed the Printer as well as the equipment needed to mix the concrete and mortar. All this equipment is delivered to the site and basically automates upto 50% of the construction. In addition to the printer, a Batch Plant mixes the mortar and concrete pumping it to the printer as it builds the project layer by layer.

Filip Bubenheimer, reports in an Article in DW:

Although the technology has been under development for about two decades, 3D-printed buildings are still a rare sight. According to COBOD, a manufacturer of 3D printing technology, 130 buildings larger than 10 square meters (107 square feet) have been printed worldwide up to 2022, with 55 of them completed just last year. One reason for the slow growth of the technology is the lack of standards to assess the stability of printed structures, said Arnaud Perrot, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Southern Brittany in France. Without these standards, it is incredibly cumbersome to demonstrate to authorities that printed buildings are safe, he told DW. But even with standards in place, 3D printing will still face challenges, especially when it comes to building tall structures.

Even so, concrete construction of the walls, save time and with scarce construction workers, saves labor. Non-3D Printed elements of the building like the foundation, roof, windows, doors and internal fittings still need to be complete by traditional methods.

Building codes are very local and drive fragmentation in the construction industry. Along with concrete as an acceptable construction material, these are the two largest barrier for acceptance.

In the US, 3D Printed Single family homes are now offered for sale and generally priced at a premium to traditionally constructed homes. IKON a leader in low cost affordable 3D Printed housing, launched a competition to break the $100,000 barrier for a finished home. IKON has launched a global competition and will publish winners during the Summer of 2023. Go to www.Initiative99.com to learn more.

“We need a moonshot for affordable housing, and I believe Initiative 99 will be the most important architectural competition in history,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO ICON. “The current affordable housing landscape seems to have been designed and built without taking beauty, aesthetics, comfort, sustainability, and resiliency as serious requirements. It’s time we attack this problem just as energetically as we’ve addressed other human challenges in the past.”

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When we talk about affordable housing, the conversation is often depressing and so are the results. Our goal is that Initiative 99 would in turn create the conditions for affordable housing to be something hopeful, optimistic and exciting, and furthermore catalyzes the building of some really incredible affordable homes that just years ago would not have even been possible

Global Construction Markets

Currently, a very small share of the construction market is 3D Printed. Some estimate < $200Mil. in a $10 Trillion global spending on construction. On the other hand there is is a very big market opportunity as improvements in costs, acceptance by regulators and consumers tip 3D Printed buildings to the main stream. In the 3D Printing application space, 3D Printing for construction will rocket to No.1 given the sheer size of construction compared with other markets.