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3D-Printer Completes the Largest 3D-Printed Home in Europe - With 2 Stories and 980 Square Feet – in Just 3 Weeks
Belgian construction firm Kamp C have used a 3D-printer to print a concrete shell of a home that measures 980 square feet, the largest ever.
Science & Tech
The largest 3D-printed home ever made in Europe—a two story affair with two living rooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and foyer—has recently been completed by the Belgian sustainable construction company Kamp C, hugely advancing the science of 3D-printed housing.
Kamp C used a 32 x 32 foot “gantry” printer, the largest of its kind in Europe, to create the shell of the two-story building. Using a special cement mixture ejected from the printer’s nozzle, the on-site work took only 3 weeks, with construction workers adding the roof, foundation, floor, windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical by hand. (See the time-lapse video below.)
The 980 square-foot building also featured some unique sustainable touches like underfloor heating and solar panels which were added later.
Of the benefits of 3D-printing, also known as “additive manufacturing,” the precise work of the machine cuts costs of materials—sometimes enormously.
Marijke Aerts, the project manager, told News Atlas: “The material’s compressive strength is three times greater than that of the conventional quick build brick. Besides the fibers in the concrete, the amount of wire-mesh reinforcement used is extremely limited. As a result of the printing technology used, the formwork was redundant, saving an estimated sixty percent on material, time, and budget.”