Dubai Municipality has won the UAE Ideas Award organized by the Dubai Quality Group under the slogan, ‘Nothing is Impossible,’ for the category of ‘Innovation in the field of inventions’ for constructing the World’s Largest 3D Printed Building. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, had launched the Dubai 3D Printing Strategy as a unique global initiative.
The initiative aims to construct 25% of Dubai’s buildings with 3D printing technology by 2030, and the strategy aims to harness this promising technology to serve people and strengthen the position of the UAE and Dubai as a leading center in the region and the world in the field of 3D printing.
The initiative enhances the role of 3D printing technologies in saving construction costs by 50-70%, and labor costs by 50-80%, in addition to reducing the percentage of waste resulting from construction operations by up to 60%. It reflects positively on the economic return of the sector and contributes to achieving environmental and resource sustainability.
The award aims to adopt the idea of innovation and sustainable development. The UAE Ideas Award sheds light on the best creative and innovative Emirati ideas at the national level. The winners were announced at the annual closing ceremony at the end of last month, which was conducted virtually for the first time.
The largest 3D printed building wins
Dubai Municipality has completed a two-story integrated building project with a height of 9.5 meters at a total area of 640 square meters through the use of 3D printing technology. It is the largest and first 3D printed two-story structure in the world executed by undertaking 3D printing onsite directly under external working conditions and using local components.
The Municipality had equipped itself with all the facilities to deal with modern technology in the construction field that achieves Dubai’s 3D printing strategy, with the aim of making Dubai a global capital for 3D printing technology.
Manufacturing on Demand
The two-story building has been designed and executed with a number of spaces that can be used as rooms or offices of different sizes. The walls are printed directly from the printer, unlike the traditional method of construction, which depends on the work of tightening wooden pieces with nuts and bolts, reinforcement and pouring of concrete and making bricks.
Curves and shapes
The building has been designed with different curves and shapes through which it was tested whether it can be possible for 3D printing in the construction of a variety of designs.
Dubai Municipality had carried out multiple tests and experiments on the mixes of the materials used in printing and to ensure that they fit the smoothness and pumping of the printer, as well as ensuring that they meet the requirements of quality, consistency and strength required to withstand the construction.
The Municipality has ensured that the materials used in the mixture are local materials available in the country. The building has been executed according to sustainability requirements and green building standards. It features efficient insulation systems through innovative geometrical wall printing and increases the possibility of utilizing voids inside the wall, which mainly helps the thermal insulation of the building and reduce energy consumption, in addition to developing solutions to connect services within the printed walls, which includes all services to the building such as electricity, water, communications, air conditioning and IT technologies.
This project is a major turning point in the construction sector at the local and regional levels and is based on the strategy of innovation in 3D printing technologies in construction, which in turn will increase the pace and speed of execution and completion of buildings in record time, and reduce construction costs and contribute to the development of solutions to the demographics challenges by reducing the number of construction labor.
It will also support the Emirate’s sustainability trends using local materials and reduce construction waste, where printing is done electronically according to engineering plans directly without human intervention.
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Author: Davide Sher
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