Archinect - News

Nidus3D completes North America's first 3D printed three-story building

2024-03-13T18:19:00-04:00

A new home design that stands as North America’s first three-story 3D printed structure has been completed in Canada using a special printer from the Danish construction technology firm COBOD.

The Toronto area proof-of-concept project from Nidus3D delivered what is reported as one of Canada’s first residentially permitted 3D printed structures. The 4,500-square-foot townhouse also includes the world's first 3D printed basement. It has a total of four residential units forming semi-attached homes made from locally sourced concrete and finished by a steel-frame roof and brick facade to match the local vernacular.

"Completing the world’s first 3D printed basement is another impressive achievement that only amplifies the technology’s potential to transform construction, and we notice with pride that multiple of our customers are pioneering what can be achieved with the 3D printing technology," COBOD's co-founder, Philip Lund-Nielsen, said in a news announcement.

Aerial view of the compl...

The world's largest 3D printed structure rises in Florida

2023-07-03T14:01:00-04:00

Florida-based 3D printing construction startup Printed Farms has announced the completion of a structure it claims is the world’s largest 3D printed building — a "luxury horse barn." The company is known for completing Florida’s first permitted 3D printed house in Tallahassee. It used Danish 3D printer producer COBOD’s BOD2 construction 3D printer for the undertaking.

Video courtesy COBOD on YouTube

Located in the southern Florida city of Wellington, the barn spans 10,105 square feet with a height of 13 feet. It has a total length of 155 feet and a width of 83 feet. The structure was constructed to withstand extreme local weather conditions, including hurricanes and tropical storms. Its 3D printed walls serve to create a cavity and air gap, which aims to provide natural cooling to the building. The construction process involved five moves of the printer, with the two sides completed twice and the middle section executed once.

Previously on Archinect: The world's largest 3D printe...

A look inside ANNA Stay, the World Hotel Building of the Year 2022 winner at the World Architecture Festival

2023-01-04T17:21:00-05:00

A modular, wooden cabin from Dutch designer Caspar Schols has won the World Hotel Building of the Year 2022 Award at the recent World Architecture Festival (WAF). Named ANNA Stay, the project is recognized for its sustainable design that allows its guests to reconnect with themselves and nature.

Image: Tonu Tunnel

Image: Jorrit 't Hoen

The building blends into its surrounding environment through its highly flexible design. The structure features two protective sliding shells: an inner shell comprising double glass and an outer shell made of wood. The shells can be adjusted, allowing the space to adapt to various weather conditions, moods, or occasions.

Image: Jorrit 't Hoen

In the cold, the insulated wooden shell can retain heat inside the dwelling. If it becomes too warm, inhabitants can slide and close the wooden layer to keep the coolness within. The glass layer can also be slid open to inject cool air to enter. The glass layer also invites natural light ins...

Stanford University engineers develop a 3D printing method that allows quicker printing with multiple resin types

2022-10-25T09:10:00-04:00

Research engineers at Stanford University have developed a 3D printing method that is "five to ten times faster than the quickest high-resolution printer currently available and is capable of using multiple types of resin in a single object." The team's design research and findings were recently published in Science Advances on September 28, 2022. This work allows for the potential use of thicker resins with "better mechanical and electrical properties," reports Laura Castañón of Stanford News.

This breakthrough is a major step forward from the current limitations of the 3D printing process, which can be timely and requires specific materials that can mainly only be used once at a time.

Figure shows print scrips for multimaterial iCLIP. Figure 6. via research article, "Injection continuous liquid interface production of 3D objects," published in Science Advances on September 28, 2022.

"This new technology will help to fully realize the potential of 3D printing," said Joseph DeSimone...

Researchers develop autonomous 3D-printing drones inspired by bees

2022-09-22T14:59:00-04:00

An international team of researchers from Imperial College London and the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technology have developed autonomous, bee-inspired 3D-printing drones. They would work in fleets, cooperatively building and repairing structures while flying.

The drones, collectively, are known as Aerial Additive Manufacturing (Aerial-AM). The system consists of BuilDrones, which deposit materials during flight, and quality-controlling ScanDrones. While fully autonomous, human intervention is still required to keep an eye on the progress.

The researchers believe this technology can provide a safer approach for building or repairing structures in precarious situations.

The research was led by Professor Mirko Kovac of Imperial’s Department of Aeronautics and the Swiss Federal Laboratories of Materials Science and Technology’s Materials and Technology Center of Robotics.

Aerial AM foam 3D print made by a BuilDrone and a ScanDrone. Image: Sarah Lever Photogr...

IAAC team 3D prints a zero-waste housing prototype using local earth

2022-09-12T18:13:00-04:00

Barcelona's Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) and Italian 3D printer manufacturer WASP have created a building they say is the first made entirely of local materials and 3D printing technology in Spain.

Called "TOVA," the project was developed by a team of students and researchers from the 3D Printing Architecture (3DPA) postgraduate program of IAAC. The endeavor was born out of the institution’s ongoing research to find new ways of facing the social and environmental challenges of the future through its various education and research programs. The structure was conceived as a prototype for sustainable housing that could be built anywhere in the world.

Photo by Gregori Civera

TOVA was constructed at the Valldaura Labs facilities on the outskirts of Barcelona and is part of a larger project in collaboration with WASP that envisions a complete house. Together the teams are exploring the future of housing solutions as the threat of a global housing emergency loom...

Alquist 3D begins 3D printing 200 homes in rural Virginia

2022-04-29T12:39:00-04:00

3D printed home specialist Alquist 3D has announced plans to build what it calls the largest 3D printed home building project in the world. The initiative is dubbed Project Virginia and will see the development of 200 homes across the state. Alquist will kick off the project with a demonstration near the site of the first two 3D printed homes in Pulaski, Virginia today, Friday, April 29.

Project Virginia follows Alquist’s recent Habitat for Humanity project in Williamsburg, Virginia, a 1,200-square-foot, three-bed, two-bathroom home, whose exterior shell was printed in just 22 hours. The company claims that this was the first owner-occupied, 3D printed home in the world and Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D printed home in the country (a similar HfH project in Tempe, Arizona lays claim to the same distinction). The initiative hopes that this structure, along with Project Virginia, can serve as blueprints for delivering affordable housing in rural and underserved regions of America.

...

New survey reveals the usage of 3D printers among American college students

2022-02-02T13:54:00-05:00

A new study published by Primary Research Group has been released examining American college students and their use of 3D printers.

The survey looks closely at how many and which students are using 3D printers at their colleges, along with how much they are using them. The report also collected students’ opinions on the value of 3D printers and how aware they are of their availability in their academic settings. The report aims to assist college and university officials to estimate the current and future level of demand for 3D printing and the source of demand. Data was collected through a representative sample of 1,076 students attending four-year colleges in the United States.

Key findings of the survey are:

46% of students majoring in engineering, mathematics, and computer science had ever used a 3D printer, the highest of any major or range of academic fields in the sample.
Older students aged 26 to 35 were much more likely than others to find a 3D printer valuable or very valu...

Habitat for Humanity completes its first 3D-printed home in the US

2021-12-28T15:42:00-05:00

One Virginia family received the keys to their new 3D-printed home in time for Christmas. The home is Habitat for Humanity's first 3D-printed home in the nation, according to a Habitat news release. Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process. Alquist's crew printed the house.

The milestone was marked by a ribbon-cutting ceremony on December 21st. The 1,200-square-foot house has three bedrooms, two full baths, and the concrete portion of the structure was printed in 12 hours. The home was built for April Stringfield, who purchased the home through Habitat for Humanity’s homeownership program. The home also includes a personal 3D printer that will allow her and her 13-year-old son to reprint anything they may need, from electrical outlets to cabinet knobs.

Previously on Archinect: Does 3D-Printed Architecture Have Real Potential? We Talk With an Architect About His Experience Designing and Building a 3D-Printed House

This project joins Habitat for Humanity’s 3D-printed residential project in Tempe, Arizona, as part of their initiative to understand the potential for 3D-printing to deliver affordable housing across the country. You can read Archinect's exclusive interview with the architects and builders of the Tempe house, and their impressions of the proc...

BIG and ICON team up once again on a 3D printed hundred-home design for Texas’ rapidly changing state capital

2021-10-27T12:10:00-04:00

As part of the firm’s evolving partnership with ICON, BIG has once again teamed up with the Texas-based manufacturer to design a 100-home neighborhood in the tech company’s adopted hometown of Austin.

Proffered as a potential solution to the dearth of housing units in the U.S. market, the homes will be produced via ICON’s Vulcan 3D printer technology and touted as providing more longevity than traditional concrete masonry housing.

The plan in many ways resembles the classic American subdivisons that cropped up after World War II. America is facing an unprecedented housing affordability crisis that has disproportionately affected one’s ability to buy a home across multiple demographic levels. BIG announced a new affordable housing initiative called NABR over the summer that promises to address some of the same issues. 2020 saw the first year in which the primary means of homeownership in the U.S. went from income to inheritance.

Image courtesy ICON

“The things we use everyday, essenti...

The University of Idaho is awarded $4 million to develop 3D-printing technology that converts wood waste into building materials

2021-10-21T14:30:00-04:00

The University of Idaho recently announced that it has been awarded nearly $4 million from the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) EPSCoR Research Infrastructure Improvement Program to develop technology for the conversion of wood waste into 3D-printing building materials.

Research will focus on the further development and testing of an additive manufacturing process as well as the design and construction of a 3D printer capable of producing modular wall, floor, and roof panels printed from wood. Funding for the research extends through 2025.

“We’re developing a new composite material, using completely bio-based resources on a truly large scale,” said University of Idaho College of Engineering assistant professor and research lead Michael Maughan. “With this technology, houses and commercial buildings can be made entirely differently. We can push past climate change, mitigate impact on our environment, and make better use of the natural resources we have.”

Previously on Archinect: N...

ICON's new 3D printed homes in Austin are “safer, more resilient homes”

2021-08-31T10:47:00-04:00

ICON has released photographs of their completed multi-family homes in Austin, Texas which make use of 3D printed construction methods. The four homes, situated in East Austin, were built for Kansas City developer 3Strands, and designed by Logan Architecture.

Image via ICON

The ground floors of the houses were built using ICON’s 3D-printed Vulcan construction system, while the upper floors were constructed using a traditional timber frame system. Other features of note include energy-efficient tankless water heaters, standing seam metal sliding and roof panels, and internal quartz and Carrera marble countertops.

Image via ICON

Speaking during the announcement of the project’s completion, ICON pointed to the potential for 3D printed technology to offer “safer, more resilient homes that are designed to withstand fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built homes.”

Kitchen area. Image via ICON

The homes’ internal finishes and fixtures were curated by Aus...

Habitat for Humanity builds its first 3D-printed house in the U.S.

2021-06-15T10:21:00-04:00

Habitat for Humanity is progressing on their first 3D-printed home in the United States. Overseen by Habitat for Humanity Central Arizona, the single-story home is currently under construction in the city of Tempe, Arizona. The global housing non-profit sees the project as an important step in their future for delivering affordable housing across the country.

Image: Habitat for Humanity

The home is being built using a combination of 3D printing and traditional construction. Between 70-80% of the home will be 3D printed, including the internal and external walls, all using a Build on Demand Printer (BOD 2) shipped from Germany-based PERI Group. The printer works in three dimensions, with an XY axis allowing horizontal construction, and a raising and lowering of the printing frame to allow vertical construction. This gantry principle allows the printer to move into any position within the structure to build inner and outer walls layer-by-layer.

Image: Habitat for Humanity

Health and...

In 24 hours, get a 3D-printed house that will last 175 years

2017-03-07T12:40:00-05:00

Although it's unclear when the furnishing/window and door fitting process takes place, one thing is certain: you can now have the basic components of an entire 400 square foot house printed in about a day from the company Apis Cor. Aside from being speedy, the $10,000 printing process is impressive because the house is printed using only one machine, instead of a multi-component process that requires wall assembly. In this slightly bizarre promotional video (featuring notable speakers including a student, identified only by first name without any kind of school affiliation) the 3D printed houses are envisioned as being great solutions for providing fast relief from natural disasters. Since they're designed to last 175 years, it makes one wonder if these curvy domiciles could become a kind of inadvertent historical marker of previous catastrophes. Check it out:

SHoP Architects' "Flotsam & Jetsam" installation is world's largest 3D-printed object

2016-12-08T13:22:00-05:00

Biodegradable bamboo filament makes up the globe's largest 3D printed object, an installation for this year's Design Miami Fair designed by SHoP Architects called "Flotsam & Jetsam" that will make a subsequent appearance as a site for performances and educational programs in the Jungle Plaza in the Design District by the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami in 2017.

In this Art Newspaper interview with SHoP principal Gregg Pasquarelli, he described the process behind the making of the installation. "We worked with two companies: Branch Technology based in Chattanooga, Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), which produced three-dimensionally printed bamboo," he said.

"We thought that could be an nice intersection between furniture and art. ORNL actually broke the Guinness World Record for the largest solid 3D-printed structure earlier this year [when it created a tool to be used for building Boeing jets], so they are breaking their own record with this pavilion."

For more...

You can steal designs from a 3D printer just by listening to it

2016-03-08T19:11:00-05:00

Researchers at the University of California, Irvine, have demonstrated a method by which a 3D design could be reverse-engineered by analysing the vibrations picked up from a common 3D printer. [...] a basic recording made with a smartphone could capture enough information to recreate a given object. Data including where the nozzle is, how it moves and for how long it is expelling plastic can be picked up, and recreate designs with 90 percent accuracy.

Can you encrypt live sound?

Another study warns that 3D-printers pose potential health risks for users

2016-02-02T19:30:00-05:00

So 3D printing didn’t even have much of a chance before the railing began regarding fumes and toxicity and in general, the question of how sick we might be getting while the filament takes its time melting nearby...[A recent University of Texas at Austin] report seems to offer up fairly common sense information, although they do state that more studies should be done regarding exposure to fumes and potential carcinogens, and should be weighed against usage patterns while 3D printing.

This health concern isn't brand new, but it's surely something that deserves further research.

MIT presents 3D printer that can print 10 materials simultaneously without breaking the bank

2015-09-01T13:34:00-04:00

As 3D printing advances from its plastic roots, we’re seeing more and more materials passing through its nozzles. Metal, glass, random gunk—each new filament opens the door to new manufacturing applications. Now researchers have made a printer they claim can use up to ten different materials at once. The “MultiFab,” made by MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL), could offer a relatively low-cost option for the multimaterial 3D printing market.

Click here to read the full paper, MultiFab: A Machine Vision Assisted Platform for Multi-material 3D Printing.

Related on Archinect:

A competition entry for Evolo 2015 that doesn't include a skyscraper

2015-05-13T00:39:00-04:00

We have new technologies in architecture those makes us feel excited when we see them applied on a facade, a roof etc. or simply used for designing. That gives us ideas about what we can design with which technologies. And we honestly believe that designing a building with high ecologic qualities is the only responsibility we have. In most of the cases that's correct. But do you really not responsible what happens while that building is being constructed.

In a construction site thousands of vehicles brings you materials. Those lorries, trucks etc. are not eco-friendly at all! You construct support structures only to construct the main thing and you say you can recycle those. Recycling is a good deed but the process itself has lots of disadvantages like unsafe and unhygienic recycling sites, and the recycled materials starts to have a shorter lifespan. And do you have any excuse of having people work on dangerous construction sites, especially when you construct a skyscraper! Even tho...

Singapore company launches world's first 3d printer/scanner hybrid

2015-02-16T19:18:00-05:00

Nanyang Technological University's (NTU Singapore) start-up Blacksmith Group today launched the world's first compact 3D printer that can also scan items into digitised models. Named the Blacksmith Genesis, this user-friendly device allows users without much knowledge of 3D software to scan any item, then edit the digitised model on the computer and print it out in 3D.

Funded through an Indiegogo campaign, the printer-scanner contains a 2-inch LCD display, Wi-Fi capabilities, an SD-card reader and a USB connection (but only weighs 6kg). The device utilizes a unique rotary platform and can print objects twice as large as similar-sized printers currently available. It's also fast: scans take only about 6 minutes.

The Blacksmith Genesis, which looks a bit like a coffee maker, is currently available for pre-order at US $2,200.