3D printing in construction: A solution to housing crisis?
3D printing has been making the headlines for its ability to create a whole range of useful items — from spare parts to food and clothing. But did you know that it can also be used in construction? You may be surprised to hear that 3D printers have already helped with the building of entire houses in a number of countries, and some people think they could become even more integral to construction work as time goes on.
With 3D printers now capable of printing entire houses, the technology could help reshape the construction industry as we know it. It is changing the landscape of the housing sector as governmental organizations, non-profits, and housing construction companies are collaborating to address the issue of housing crisis and reduce rental prices by creating affordable housing.
How 3D printer prints a house?
3D printing is the process of making three-dimensional solid objects from a digital model. The industrial sized 3D printers print houses by adding layer upon layer of material based on digital blueprints designed on modeling software.
3D printers print a house producing a paste-like mixture of materials such as sand, cement, and other additives, or uses sustainable earth-based materials, such as soil, clay, straw chopped rice, and slit. After the basic structure is printed, workers complete the finishing by installing plumbing, electrical wiring, doors and windows.
Benefits of 3D printing houses
3D printing has the potential to build everything from foundations to walls to bridges in a faster, more inexpensive and more environmentally-friendly manner as the technology continues to grow. These factors can help with rebuilding homes after a natural disaster, giving shelter to homeless people and building more sustainable habitats and so on.
Fast Construction
One of the advantages of 3D printing is time efficiency. While conventional construction takes months and years to fully construct a home, 3D printer can build a house from the ground up in a matter of days. Some of them are even capable of building 600–800-square-foot home in just 24 hours. And because 3D printers are fully automated, they require little supervision or staff on the site. According to Marco Vonk, Marketing Manager at Saint-Gobain Weber Beamix, “You save about 60% of the time on the jobsite and 80% in labor.”
Get 3D Culture’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Almost Zero waste of material
Another benefit of 3D printing is that it saves a lot of production costs on material because they use as much material as is necessary for creating a structure. Not only that, but they are also capable of using recycled materials. When paired with other waste-reducing processes and building methods like prefabrication and lean construction, the potential of a waste-zero building seems all the more likely.
Complex Design
The most important benefit of 3D printing in construction industry is innovative design solutions it offers. It gives design freedom allowing for the production of new shapes and solutions that are otherwise unattainable, or too expensive or labor-intensive to create by conventional means. You can customize or improve your project planning at the designing stage. It enables you to make any organic shape you want to, and it’s a one-to-one copy to what you designed on paper.
How 3D printing is cutting the construction cost
As mentioned above, 3D printing allows for almost-zero material wastage, involves fewer staff and can work around the clock. Those factors radically reduce the costs of building a 3D printed home, that makes it ideal to address the inventory crisis and affordability issues.
These aspects allow an 800 to 1000 square foot home to be printed on average for $4,000 to $10,000. As reported by the Business Insider, a 350 square foot tiny-home costs on average $25,000 and can cost up to six figures with upgrades. However, 3-D printing company ICON predicts based on the developed prototype that it can build 600 to 800 square foot homes for $4,000 in 24 hours or less. Additionally, ICON has also reported to the Wall Street Journal that it can print a 2000 square foot home for $20,000.
How 3D printing houses can help in solving the housing crisis
3D-printed houses is an innovative step toward addressing housing needs in the world. The cost cutting factors and time efficiency can help in rebuilding the damaged houses after a natural disaster and providing shelter to homeless people. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimated that $145 billion worth of houses and infrastructure were lost or damaged in wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes and other climate-related disasters in 2021.
Additionally, as 3-D printing technology continues developing, it not only has the potential to eradicate homelessness but also has the potential to reduce rent insecurity and increase home ownership. The rent burden tremendously increases the financial burden on households as rent continues to increase and compose larger and larger portions of their income.
According to the survey of World Economic Forum, “by 2030, three billion people will need improved housing across the world, for which 96,000 new homes will have to be built every day.”
However, the low-cost of 3-D printing has the potential to revolutionize the housing market of the future and allow families to find more affordable housing. Moreover, the low-cost of 3-D printed homes can also allow upper-lower class and middle-class families to increase home ownership by decreasing the overall cost of housing. Thus, it is possible that as 3-D printing technology continues to develop, it could define the trajectory of the future housing market.
