In the town of Rancho Mirage in California, what will be the world’s first development of 3D-printed chalets that are also self-sustaining is being built.
The Oakland-based company Mighty Buildings is responsible for this project of 30 two- or three-bedroom modern-style homes that sell for $600,000 (542,000 euros).
“We are going to be the first company to complete what we believe will be the sustainable housing standard of the future,” explains Slava Solonitsyn, CEO of the company, which has partnered with a local real estate agency to lift the neighborhood.
Technology already allows the use of huge printers that, from a digital file, can, layer by layer, build a house in less than 24 hours. Although they are not yet able to define details such as windows or electrical and plumbing conduits, which are installed using traditional construction methods, the software is becoming more advanced.
Especially after the boost that came as a result of the pandemic when 3D printing was used to manufacture protective equipment and respirators. If the global value of the business reached 5,241 million euros in 2016.
The explosive growth of recent years predicts a business of 50.4 billion euros by 2027, with an annual growth rate of 23%, according to projections by the technology consultancy Smithers.
The strongest impact is expected in the real estate sector with the United States in the lead, but also with similar projects in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
One of the pioneers is the Austin, Texas-based company ICON, which built the first ready-to-for-sale 3D houses in the city of San Antonio and has patented a cement-like material under the name Lavacrete.
“We are witnessing the emergence of entirely new architectural languages that will use robotic construction to deliver what we need most in our homes: comfort, beauty, dignity, sustainability, accessibility, and hope,” said Jason Ballard, the company’s co-founder and CEO.
Having overcome the obstacle of convincing a skeptical traditional construction sector, the company has already delivered more than two dozen homes throughout the United States and Mexico. Even last November it signed a contract of 54.2 million euros with NASA to develop structures that allow establishing a sustained presence on the Moon.
In addition, he has founded ‘Initiative 99’, a global architecture competition where participants can present printed house projects for less than 89,500 euros with a final prize of one million dollars.
“Now our biggest challenge is to build more printers,” says Ballard. If cranes, scaffolding and a lot of labor are needed in traditional construction, to build these houses you have to count on the huge machines that add layers of various materials such as cement, foam rubber or polymers, the latter are the basis of manufacturing of plastics with a high insulating capacity.
Once you have enough printers, growth can be unstoppable. The catalog of 3D printing companies covers the entire real estate range, from homes to sell, others for social interest, through houses to alleviate the impact of natural disasters.
In the small town of Littleton, in North Carolina, the City Council has brought together a group of private developers and several non-profit organizations to invest 27 million euros in the construction of 150 affordable and ecological homes to revitalize the area. “These are homes for people who don’t have six-figure incomes,” explains Stacy Woodhouse, a Fitts Foundation consultant involved in the project.
The benefits of this new construction technique are multiple. The problem of housing shortages could be solved, they are more sustainable, cheaper, they rise faster, with less labor and tenants can choose the design of their homes to their liking.
Another project to highlight is the community of 500 46-square-meter houses built by the San Francisco-based NGO, New Story, to alleviate poverty in Nacajuca (Mexico), with ICON techniques. Initially, priority has been given to social housing, but given the success, the sector is now ready to develop large developments for private buyers.
The first large-scale order has been launched in Dubai, where the largest printed building in the world, 9.5 meters high and with a total area of 640 square meters, is underway. 25% of the houses that will be built this year in the country will have a printer.
