Singaporean architecture firm Park + Associates (P+A) has achieved a first in the city-state with the completion of its QR3D prototype housing project. The build, which now houses P+A’s founder Lim Koon Park and his family, is the first multi-story 3D printed building in Singapore.
The QR3D project was first commissioned back in 2021, at a time when the construction industry in Singapore (and globally) faced a major labor shortage and construction costs spiked in the aftermath of pandemic-exacerbated supply chain challenges. At the time, 3D printing presented itself as a potential solution to both labor gaps and supply chain issues thanks to its highly automated nature and ability to print structure on-site, often from locally sourced materials.
In the case of QR3D, Park + Associates was not only interested in leveraging construction 3D printing to address these challenges, it also wanted to push the boundary in terms of 3D printed housing design. As the architecture firm explained: “We wanted to challenge the perception of ‘high’-tech equating to cookie-cutter/modular architecture that responds purely to efficiency. Nor does it mean speculative architecture that feels experimental. We set out exploring whether a 3D printed house could: be applicable for mainstream, architecturally driven projects within urban context; achieve high-quality emotive spaces; [… and] still create a home that can remain relevant and respected in decades to come.”
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The resulting structure certainly lives up to these goals, with a unique, intentional design that spans four stories and is reportedly made from 90% 3D printed concrete material. Among the most notable features of the 3D printed home are exposed concrete walls that turn the layered effect of the printing process into a textured design element; narrow ribbon windows that illuminate the space while still offering protection from the heat; and oculus, a conical void that rises from the ground floor to the top floor. This unique design feature functions both as a sunlight, streaming natural light into the home from above, as well as a climate regulator, drawing warm air up and then extracting it using a passive turbo extractor fan subtly integrated in the design.
The design of the Oculus was inspired by the previous home that existed on the build site: a neoclassical home from the 90s, with a “strong sense of geometric forms and formalistic spatial arrangement.” The Oculus therefore pays homage to this style, not strictly in terms of its design reference, but simply by being a rather grand architectural statement.
Now complete, QR3D has marked a milestone for Singapore’s construction 3D printing market. According to P+A, Singapore has embraced the technology for years, but has limited its application to small-scale projects, like planters, a prefab bathroom units. The innovative architecture firm has thus shown the technology’s potential for much larger, more ambitious projects. “Now we have demonstrated how it can be used to ‘print’ a building—Singapore’s very first full-fledged, multi-story 3D printed house, representing a leap for the technology’s use—a future where architecture is both technically progressive and deeply human,” the firm said.
In the global construction 3D printing market, we are seeing more and more multi-story projects realized, including a two-story medical center in Thailand, as well as many future building plans, such as ICON’s upcoming project consisting of a series of two-story homes in Texas and an Indigenous housing project in Canada that aims to build a large three-story residential complex.
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TU Munich researchers 3D print wall façade for urban wildlife: The wall panel is a prototype made from a local clay material (40% of which is recycled) that was 3D printed in a sort of tesselated geometric structure. The cladding also integrates small gaps, which allow local birds, including sparrows and black redstarts, to access the hollow space between the structure and the wall to build nests. At the base of the 3D printed façade, additional entry points have been integrated so that hedgehogs too can make themselves a sheltered home. The wall cladding, reportedly the first of its kind, can reportedly accommodate over 20 birds and hedgehogs.
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Author: Tess Boissonneault
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