World's First 3-D Printed Apartment Building Constructed in China

This is pretty cool, ATS. It also holds great potential for future endeavors with this new technology. 3D Print technology is our next great leap forward in my opinion as it's potential is almost limitless. A company in China has now prinited the world's first entire 5-story apartment building.

Although the company hasn't revealed how large it can print pieces, based on photographs on its website, they are quite sizeable. A CAD design is used as a template, and the computer uses this to control the extruder arm to lay down the material "much like how a baker might ice a cake," WinSun said. The walls are printed hollow, with a zig-zagging pattern inside to provide reinforcement. This also leaves space for insulation.

This process saves between 30 and 60 percent of construction waste, and can decrease production times by between 50 and 70 percent, and labour costs by between 50 and 80 percent. In all, the villa costs around $161,000 to build.

And, using recycled materials in this way, the buildings decrease the need for quarried stone and other materials -- resulting in a construction method that is both environmentally forward and cost effective.

In time, the company hopes to use its technology on much larger scale constructions, such as bridges and even skyscrapers.

The thing that excites me the most with this technology is the potential it has for the exploration/colonization of Space. Many of the limitations can be surpassed now: food, habitat, medical, clothing, etc. All that's left are air and water. Sounds easy enough right? What says ATS?

www.cnet.com...=YHF65cbda0

The printed mansion is impressive. The cost on the entire apartment building was 161K or was that the cost for the mansion?

Either way this is good for the populace. Right now the printer is off site making the pieces to be assembled there but I am sure at some point we will see onsight printers which should lower the cost even more. I know there are a lot of people in construction who are against this but they will not be able to stop progress.

This is the future ladies and gents, the real question is will this be
the destroyer of the construction industry, that is a huge swath
of the economy. I have a feeling this will be very very slow in coming
due to that fact even though it could make housing very cheap for
everyone.

Always a trade off when tech advances faster than our economies
are willing to keep pace.

I would wonder how durable these buildings are....made me think of the Three Little Pigs story.

have to question, also, how healthy the construction materials are, for a habitation. could the sun's rays cause chemicals to exude from the materials and premeate the inside of such a structure's breathable atmosphere. is it plastic based? not a good scenario.

originally posted by: undo
have to question, also, how healthy the construction materials are, for a habitation. could the sun's rays cause chemicals to exude from the materials and premeate the inside of such a structure's breathable atmosphere. is it plastic based? not a good scenario.

Yeah...that and fire rating. If a homes material is ALL made of the same thing, and it burns, it would go up really quickly if ignited.

omg, I want one of those !

definitely a realistic look into the future of building, way to go WinSun and Ma Yihe

looks like a good investment with multiple applications

I remember somebody making a castle with a 3d printer. He used concrete for his.
I will try to find a pic.

Found it.

www.iflscience.com...

I read that he uses recycled mine tailings into usable materials. Which is great because they don't have any other known uses and are generally just cheapy stored at mining sites. Taking all the stuff that gets thrown out from a rock quarry and turning it into homes is just awesome.

For those who haven't kept up with this before these are not made out of plastic. They are printed by a machine but the material is something like quick drying concrete I don't even know if they can burn.

a reply to: lostbook

Cool development but it's not quite what people are expecting when they hear "3D Printed [whatever]" as the parts are printed in a factory and assembled onsite. What they expect is something like Enrico Dini's D-Shape:



Which has been used to print small houses like this one:



Andrey Rudenko from Minnesota printed a mini castle last year in his backyard that took about 2 months to print from start to finish. His next project is a full sized house:




That's the technology that will eventually enable us to send robots to build habitats ahead of human explorers.

originally posted by: lostbook

using a proprietary 3D printer that uses a mixture of ground construction and industrial waste

A company in China has now prinited the world's first entire 5-story apartment building.

Hmmmmm, China doesn't have the best record for using safe materials in products.

This would only catch on in other countries if rules were strict on materials.

I do want one though.

if it's made from glass and concrete, i wonder if there's a way to make it lighter (without plastics) so that it could be used to provide shelters for the homeless. reason i say lighter, is it could then be easily transportable,as homeless people appear to have a problem finding places they can legally make their homesteads at and frequently have to move. make it like lego blocks.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Looks like 'paper mache'.

I remember using paper with glue to make things way back in the day.

originally posted by: TruthxIsxInxThexMist
a reply to: theantediluvian

Looks like 'paper mache'.

I remember using paper with glue to make things way back in the day.

ooo i wonder if they could do that with paper and other safe building materials. that would certainly make the thing lighter.

a reply to: undo

Yeah, definately would.

Could probably go outside now and make one using paper and glue but obviously would need some type of plastic covering aswell for the rain, then you won't need printing machine unless for the other parts!

a reply to: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

There's a house in Rockport, MA that was built out of paper in the 1920s. A more modern (and less permanent) example would be this house made of bales of paper.

originally posted by: undo
if it's made from glass and concrete, i wonder if there's a way to make it lighter (without plastics) so that it could be used to provide shelters for the homeless. reason i say lighter, is it could then be easily transportable,as homeless people appear to have a problem finding places they can legally make their homesteads at and frequently have to move. make it like lego blocks.

Back in the 1960's, concrete was deemed to be the building material of the future. They designed everything from prefabricated homes to high-rise apartments blocks through the use of various basic construction shapes (corners, windows, blank walls, doorways, staircases, sloped roofs). Each would be made from a mold containing steel mesh, then filled with liquid concrete and allowed to set. It could then be driven over to the construction site and lifted into place. The only problem was that these buildings were completely airtight and didn't have any ventilation to accommodate the living habits of the owners; gas fires, drying clothes, cooking boiled food.

Nowadays, affordable homes are built from breeze blocks, which are hollow concrete blocks with an air gap inside to provide some insulation, along with special blocks to allow ventilation and prevent moisture build up.

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: TruthxIsxInxThexMist

There's a house in Rockport, MA that was built out of paper in the 1920s. A more modern (and less permanent) example would be this house made of bales of paper.

So, he did this back in the 20's and its still standing!

A great achievement! I wonder why this didn't take off? Would have been cheaper!

Thanks for the link.

a reply to: bloodreviara

The "construction" industry may be profitable but it is quite at odds with the "human" industry. China's empty, expensive cities/apartments while the masses live in what is more or less a slum being the shining example.

3D printing will be one of the final nails in the coffin of economic slavery. Too bad it won't be overnight.

a reply to: theantediluvian

That's the technology that will eventually enable us to send robots to build habitats ahead of human explorers.

This times 1000


If we could crunch up and use base materials (rocks etc) to do this it would be much easier, . Rubble go's in smooth printy goodness comes out. would change life on earth, repairs would be easier as certain sections could be replaced not the whole structure. But the crux is cheap off world construction.. when i see a 3d printer i always think i am looking at the worlds first replicator.

awesome stuff

Q