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Danish 3D printing construction company COBOD International has sold a BOD2 to Saudi Arabian construction company Elite for Construction & Development Co. The BOD2, reportedly the biggest construction 3D printer in the world, will be delivered to Elite by the end of May, 2019.
Elite placed the order of the BOD2 from COBOD in order to fulfil Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030, which aims to improve the country’s economy and housing through pillars of innovations, i.e., modern construction techniques.
— 3D Printing Industry
COBOD states the printing speed of its new BOD2 system at 18 meters (59 feet) per minute. Image: COBOD."The BOD2 3D printer can print buildings with measurements of 12m in width, 27m in length and 9m in height," reports 3D Printing Industry. "COBOD also claim that the machine can produce three... View full entry
3D-printed construction seems a good fit for the military. The emerging technology is relatively portable and inexpensive, and could potentially even save lives if it means soldiers receive a safe barracks in a shorter time. With this in mind, the US Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC) recently constructed a prototype concrete barracks in under two days with what it calls the world's largest 3D printer. — New Atlas
The US military 3D printed a basic barracks hut measuring 500 sq ft in just 40 hours at the US Army Engineer Research and Development Center in Champaign, Illinois. The MCSC reported this technology reduced construction time from what would typically take 10 Marines 5 days to build a similar... View full entry
Now, Dubai has taken a step further along the road to making such dreams a reality by announcing that 25% of the city-state’s new buildings will be made using 3D printers by 2025.
The move is part of an ambitious 3D-printing strategy announced in 2016 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Dubai.
— weforum.org
According to the Dubai Future Foundation the city aims to reduce labor by 70% and cut overall costs by 90% with their 3D-printed construction plan. The strategy not only aims at addressing the UN's projected density for urban areas in the future, but also holds potential to solve Dubai's severe... View full entry
Cut peat blocks were already being used for building houses thousands of years ago. Now, scientists at the University of Tartu have developed a material which could make it possible to print energy-efficient houses out of milled peat and oil shale ash using a 3D printer. — Research in Estonia
"As peat and oil shale ash are not very expensive, house builders would be especially happy about the price of the material. According to Liiv, scientists calculated that the cost for the construction of a house shell printed from this material with a floor surface of 100–150 square meters could... View full entry
ICON has developed a method for printing a single-story 650-square-foot house out of cement in only 12 to 24 hours, a fraction of the time it takes for new construction. If all goes according to plan, a community made up of about 100 homes will be constructed for residents in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with New Story, a nonprofit that is vested in international housing solutions. — theverge.com
Today at SXSW, The first model is scheduled to be unveiled by Austin-based startup ICON. The company uses the Vulcan 3D printer in order to generate an entire home for $10,000 with plans to bring costs down to $4,000 per house. Using concrete rather than plastic, the model features... View full entry
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... View full entry
First, it was an office, and now, it's an entire 3D printed house. Well, mostly 3D printed: while the "primary vertical structure, roof, and large portions of the facade will be freeform 3D printed, the glass enclosure and interior finishes will be conventional construction" for the future... View full entry
A very large 3D printer measuring 20 x 120 x 40 ft (6 x 36 x 12 m) did most of the work, printing the building by extruding a cement mixture layer by layer, in a similar method by which WinSun's 3D-printed homes were made (WinSun is involved in this project too). There were also some additional smaller mobile 3D-printers used too, however.
It took 17 days to print the basic building, but it then required finishing both internally and externally.
— Gizmag
How many people does it take to 3D print an office? Well, according to Arabian Business, "The labour involved in the printing process included one staff to monitor the function of the printer, in addition to a group of seven people to install the building components on site as well as a team of... View full entry
The 2,000-year-old arch is all that remains of the Temple of Bel, part of the Syrian Unesco World Heritage site, captured by militants in May.
It will be recreated from photographs, using a 3D printer.
The institute behind the project hopes the arch will draw attention to the importance of cultural heritage.
— BBC
For more in innovative 3D printing news, do check out Archinect's coverage: • ESA proposes a village on the moon• Amsterdam could get a new 3D-printed bridge built by robots• Vote on which 3D concrete puzzles of cities & places to model next View full entry
So continues the space-age fantasy of humankind someday living successfully on the Red Planet, or undertaking expeditions to the far ends of the universe. In this spirit, NASA and America Makes' launched their 3D Printed Habitat Challenge late last year, wherein multi-disciplinary teams proposed... View full entry
Outside, across the car park of this otherwise unremarkable industrial estate, is a grand, neoclassical mansion that recently became a global internet sensation . It is the world’s first 3D-printed villa. [...]
Not all architects are convinced that 3D printing is good for architecture as a discipline. [...] "It may come without economic cost at a small scale but in architecture, if we are not careful, this is at the expense of integrity.”
— theguardian.com
Previously: Rapid Construction, China Style: 10 Houses in 24 Hours View full entry
Architects and builders all over the world seem to be participating in a fictional rat race to build the very first 3D-printed house. In the past five years we’ve seen quite some drawings and models of 3D-printed architecture, but only few architects have the printers running until now. In this article we’ll compare five of the most prominent 3D-printing initiatives in the world to find out what 3D-printed architecture has in store for the coming years. — popupcity.net
A team of researchers from Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia are working on another solution: A swarm of tiny robots that could cover the construction site of the future, quickly and cheaply building greener buildings of any size. [...]
"The robots can work simultaneously while performing different tasks, and having a fixed size they can create objects of virtually any scale, as far as material properties permit”
— fastcoexist.com
Check out the Minibuilders in action below: View full entry
A fully automated mobile platform for 3D printing capable of producing objects of limitless scale does not currently exist.
In the hope of remedying this situation, Gensler’s Los Angeles office initiated Mobile 3D Printing, a Gensler research project born from an observation of present-day 3D printing technology and its limitations.
— gensleron.com
Super-starchitect Lord Norman Foster and his friends at the European Space Agency stunned the world last year with a plan to build a lunar base by 3D-printing it with moon dust. But what happens when you try something like that on Earth? How is 3D printing changing the way we build cities?
I got the chance to ask Foster just that question at the Center for Architecture in New York City last night.
— gizmodo.com
Previously on Archinect: Foster + Partners works with European Space Agency to 3D print structures on the moon View full entry
