China Constructs World’s First Five-Storey 3D Printed Apartment Building

3D printing opens up a world of possibilities. We’ve seen many different objects being constructed through 3D printing, at a show recently cars printed with this method were seen, and now we’re seeing an entire five-storey apartment building that has been constructed using a 3D printer made possible by a certain type of print material.

A Chinese company called WinSun claimed in March last year that it 3D printed 10 houses in 24 hours hours by using a proprietary 3D printer which uses a mixture of ground industrial and construction waste as the material. The waste contains things like tailings and glass with a base of quick-drying cement coupled with a special hardening agent.

WinSun has once again shown off the capability of this technology by constructing a 3D printed five-storey apartment bulding as well as a 1,100 square meter villa that even has decorative furnishings inside. The finished product is being displayed at the Suzhou Industrial Park.

The 3D printer used for this purpose is about 6.6 meters high, 40 meters long and 10 meters wide, it fabricates parts in large pieces which are then assembled on-site. Steel reinforcements are later added along with insulation to bring the structure up to code.

Not only does this method of building structures significantly reduce labor costs it also decreases production time and construction waste.

The idea itself isn’t bad at all even if it is a bit heavy on the pocket. It is expensive though, the villa alone cost around $160,000.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Gadgets
Tags: 3D Printing