According to the United Nations, by 2030 there will be over 4 billion people living with an annual income of below $3,000, creating an increasing need for low-cost, adequate, housing. An average of 100,000 new housing units will have to built every day over the next 15 years to meet this demand.
Engineering teams around the world are working to develop the world's first 3D printed house in order to show that 3D printing can be integrated into the construction industry and help solve this crisis.
Last month an Italian engineering firm passed a key milestone in its 3D printing project when it built the world's largest delta 3D printer. Wasp's (World Advanced Saving Project) “Big Delta” will demonstrate the viability of its auto-production concept for solving the global housing crisis. It aims to develop a low cost, low energy, environmentally-friendly housing solution for developing countries and areas effected by natural disasters.
Big Delta is 40ft tall and 20ft wide 3D printer. 'Delta' 3D printers use three arms connected in a triangular configuration to universal joints, as opposed to cartesian printers more found in desktop printers, which have three rails and actuate linearly along each axis.
The rotating print head of the Big Delta mixes local materials such as dirt and clay together with small amounts of chemical additives, to create a low cost material to print with. The printer is also reported to use less than 100 watts of power. These features will enable it to provide low cost housing in developing countries and in areas affected by natural disasters, said the company.
The print head of the Big Delta printer
Sustainable housing
Wasp presented the Big Delta during a three day event in Ravenna, Italy last month, which it dubbed the “reality of a dream”. Massimo Moretti, founder of Wasp said: “We will demonstrate that ours was not just a dream, that low cost housing is possible and that it houses can be built with a 3D printer. And we also developed a model for sustainability.”
Big Delta is the latest in a series of 3D printers from Wasp. The company also sells a range of smaller printers for use in engineering development and industry, but is clearly targeting the construction industry with its latest Big Delta.
The next task for the Italian engineers is to actually 3D print a sustainable house. The company is reported to be working with another Italian firm Health R&S, to create houses that have walls capable of repelling insects, which will help fight infection.
Amsterdam project
Wasp isn't the only company trying to build an entirely 3D printed house. DUS Architects in Amsterdam have been working on a project to print a canal house since March 2014 which they expect to be complete in 2017.
The canal house in Amsterdam
The
3D Print Canal House, which consists of 13 different rooms, is being printed with the KamerMaker – a huge fused deposition modelling printer that can print elements of 2 x 2 x 3,5 meters, which has been developed by DUS
The KamerMaker is a scaled up version of open-source desktop 3D printer the Ultimaker and works in the same way. The material is delivered to the print head via a heated tube, which moves along a preprogrammed path on the X and Y axes before it moves up one step on the axis.
The material being used is a bioplastic which is 80% derived from from plant oil and 20% fibre that the firm claims is waste free and environmentally sustainable.
The canal house is also an exhibition and tourists can see the canal house as it is being constructed.
China
However, while the KamerMaker steadily lays down the canal house, a Chinese firm called WinSun says it has already
3D printed houses using recycled construction waste and cement.
Winsun says it can print house 20 ft tall, 33 ft wide and 132 ft in a day, by printing the parts, such as frames and walls separately then assembling. “We produce a mix of cement and construction waste to construct the walls layer by layer, a process much like how a baker might ice a cake. We also plan to build 100 recycling facilities around China to help us keep with the demand,” it says.
The Winsun house project
Whoever is first and if it has already been achieved, these buildings are all prototypes. They act as demonstration of the changes 3D printing could bring to the construction industry, but it will certainly be years before these changes are fully realised.