ON MODULAR: The Future Of 3D Printed Building Construction Is Now

WinSun’s 3D printed apartment building.

Back in November 2013 we wrote an article asking Does It Matter Who Wins the Race to Create the First 3D Printed Building? We determined that being first didn’t matter nearly as much as the fact that there were a number of firms working on the technology to make 3D printed buildings a reality. Some of the projects we covered were DUS Architects’ canal house in Amsterdam using their KamerMaker 3D printer, Enrico Dini’s D-Shape 3D printer and Behrokh Khoshnevis’ Contour Crafting. At the time it appeared we probably wouldn’t see a functional and usable building until the end of 2014 at the earliest.

Little did we know that about four months later in March 2014, a company out of China, WinSun Decoration Design Engineering, would 3D print 10 single-room buildings in in a span of 24 hours.  Each building was roughly 2,153ft² and cost less than $5,000 each to build. Ten months later, WinSun followed up on that impressive feat by announcing they had built a 3D printed five-story apartment building and an 11,840ft² villa. The villa reportedly cost $161,000 to build and was completed by an eight-man team in 30 days.

WinSun prints the building components offsite using printers that measure 20 feet tall by 33 feet wide by 132 feet long and uses an “ink” composed of recycled construction waste, fiberglass, concrete, sand and a hardening agent. The building components are printed in layers in a diagonally reinforced pattern for strength. The printed building components are transported and assembled onsite in order to complete the buildings. The company is planning to expand operations by establishing printing facilities in 20 other countries including Saudi Arabia and the United States. In the future, WinSun wants to expand their capabilities in order to build skyscrapers and bridges.

With the news that WinSun is planning to expand its operations to the United States, the question shifts from when will we see the first habitable 3D printed building to what the implications are for the construction industry once this disruptive gains traction. Local and state building codes will probably have to be addressed at some point. Organizations like the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) will likely determine standards such as test methods and specifications for the 3D building material “ink”. Plants will have to be established to manufacture the “ink” and factories will be needed to build the printers and to print the building components if they aren’t being printed onsite.

We mentioned in our previous article on 3D printed buildings that there would be a tradeoff in jobs. Jobs for traditional construction workers would be lost in favor of positions like 3D printer operators and repair technicians, etc. Obviously this won’t have a major impact on jobs since 3D printed buildings aren’t going to occupy a significant share of the construction market any time soon. It’s way too early to tell if it ever will. Some of the initial applications discussed include affordable, low cost housing for both single-family and multi-family residences as well as a way to provide fast and affordable temporary housing in disaster relief situations.

Source: Construction Data Building Blocks Log