New Home Construction Technique Uses 3D Printing
There’s a company that’s building new homes using a giant 3D printer that prints in concrete, and there’s already a waiting list to purchase.
By DAVID on June 8, 2018
3D printing has been around for years. It started back in the ’80s as a high-dollar concept and prototyping method for pre-production models. These days, 3D printers can be purchased at consumer electronics stores, and you can make children’s toys on them, cheaply. Now, 3D printing is used in the medical field, food industry, NASA has one in space… The possibilities are endless.
A town in the Netherlands (no surprise, they’re always doing cutting-edge things) is 3D printing homes. They’re using a massive printer capable of spitting out concrete. The “printer” moves around, tracing the floorplan of the home it’s printing. As it follows a route, it lays a layer of concrete down, and slowly builds higher and higher as if it were icing a cake. It’s called “Project Milestone,” and it was developed and sort of sparked by about 20 families that were interested in living in a 3D printed home. Another motivating factor for the technology is a distinct lack of bricklayers in the country. Nobody wants to do brickwork any more there, apparently.
The first home is scheduled to be finished sometime next year. It’ll be a 3-bedroom “bungalow.” The next few houses after that one will be multi-floor, multi-room structures. The rendering pictures look like something out of a 1950s sci-fi movie, they’re actually really organic looking and very interesting to look at. Check out some pictures and more info over here.
