[Image above] The 3-D printed house is 1,022 square feet and has four bedrooms. Credit: BBC News
3-D printing is changing manufacturing in really cool ways. It appears that pretty much anything can be 3-D printed—electronic circuits, bioceramic bone replacements, optical lenses, and many more products.
Even houses.
The building industry is on the verge of a shift—in design, engineering, and especially construction. And additive manufacturing or 3-D printing is the disruptor behind the shift.
Earlier this year we reported on a company that 3-D printed a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom concrete house in Austin, Texas in less than 24 hours.
Now, a family in Nantes, France has moved into a 1,022-ft2 3-D-printed 4-bedroom house. The house is a collaboration between the University of Nantes, city council, and a housing association, according to a BBC article. And according to the article, the family was the first in the world to move into a 3-D-printed house.
“The cost of the house is 20% cheaper than another identical construction,” University of Nantes project leader Benoit Furet claims in the video. “But the advantage of 3-D printing is that it enables us to have far richer solutions in terms of the shape of the house.”
Printed in about 54 hours, the house was designed and built to curve around existing trees on the land so they wouldn’t have to be cut down. Curving the structure improves air circulation and thermal resistance in the home and reduces humidity, according to the BBC article.
The 3-D printer prints the wall in layers, from the floor up. Credit: BBC News
The walls of the house are printed with a cement layer surrounded by two layers of polyurethane insulation. The roof, windows, and doors are added after the foundation is printed.
Furet wants to create an entire neighborhood of 3-D-printed homes and is currently involved in printing an 18-house community and a large commercial building.
Watch the video below to see the 3-D printer in action.
Credit: BBC News
Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to the Ceramic Tech Today newsletter to continue to read more articles about the latest news in the ceramic and glass industry! Visit this link to get started.