3D printed houses are coming and the construction industry will never be the same

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The first 3D printed house is coming, and the construction industry will never be the same


March 23rd, 2015

By FRANCE COSTREL, SAM REGA

Read More: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/3d...orhoods-2015-3

Architects around the globe are racing to build the world’s first 3D printed houses — a breakthrough with profound implications for housing affordability and customisation.

- In China, a company named Winsun this year said it built 10 3D printed houses in just one day. The reported cost for each: just $US5,000. --- In Amsterdam, a team of architects has started construction of the 3D Print Canal House, using bio-based, renewable materials.

- 3D printers build structures layer by layer. But at USC in California, Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis is pushing the fabrication process one step further with what he calls “contour crafting.” He hopes to develop a gigantic 3D printer, able to print whole house in a single run, from its structure to its electrical and plumbing conduits. The revolution in 3D printed housing, in other words, is well underway.

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Video: http://www.businessinsider.com/3d-pr...sgcFY6Vlw3LHTb

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Architecture firm explores how to 3D-print houses

Read More: https://kinder.rice.edu/blog/Holeywell052115/

Gensler, the San Francisco-based design and architecture firm, says it’s working with a Chinese company to explore the possibility of producing homes using massive 3D-printers. The technology garnered international attention last year when the Chinese company WinSun announced it had used 3D-printing to construct 10 houses in a day.

At a conference in Houston Thursday, a Gensler official said his firm is working with WinSun to explore how that technology could be used in several different places, including – potentially – the U.S. “When you start thinking about what that means, it’s mind boggling,” said Jorge Barrero, a senior associate at Gensler, speaking at the Houston 2035 conference Thursday. “This is going to be very, very disruptive to our industry.”

Gensler is collaborating with WinSun through WinSun Global, a partnership that includes other companies. One idea under consideration: a new style of urban planning, where a 3D printing facility forms the center of a community. Barrero described a theoretical neighborhood in which a massive 3D printer could be stored in a factory, and the houses it produces would be installed around it. Once the neighborhood was complete, the 3D printer could be removed, and the factory would be left behind and converted into a school, community center, or other amenity. Barrero says Gensler’s experiments suggest a 3D-printed building would cost 30 to 40 percent less than a similar structure.

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