News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
The US and Canada have seen several single-story 3D printed buildings in recent years, but now Canadian 3D construction printing company, nidus3D, has finished the construction of the first two-story building in North America (in Ontario).
According to a project submitted to designboom, a group of designers – Or Naim, Elisheva Gillis, Gitit Linker, Danny Freedman, Noa Zermati, Adi Segal, Rebeca Partook, and Nof Nathansohn – have created ‘To Grow a Building’, an outdoor performative lab that imagined the possibility of a world in which buildings are 3D printed from organic materials. The designers presented the project at Jerusalem Design Week 2022.
ASTM International has been awarded funding from the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a roadmap for guidance and adoption of advanced manufacturing technologies in the construction sector.
Building code regulators at the US state level in Montana have made history as the first to approve 3D printed walls as an equal replacement for walls made with concrete masonry units (CMUs), or a standard cored concrete block. The approval was granted to Tim Stark, a contractor based in Billings, Montana, after filing documents, specifications, and testing reports developed by Apis Cor, the Florida-based construction technology company that holds the Guinness World Record for the largest (volume) 3D printed building globally.
Education chiefs in Ireland, where the use of 3D concrete printing is currently limited, are hoping a new training course in 3D concrete printing will help contribute to addressing the need to build more affordable homes, at a quicker pace. The course is the first of its kind in the country and is being run by Louth and Meath Education Training Board (LMETB).
The latest large format additive manufactring project from Caracol AM, a highly dynamic company in the robotic LFAM segment, is a giant “Y” shaped sculpture placed in front of Yamamay’s HQ in Gallarate, near Milan, in Italy. Yamamay the Italian leader in the production and distribution of underwear, lingerie, sleepwear and beachwear products. The company is very much dedicate to innovative design and implementing more sustainable manufacturing practices: the 3-meter tall sculpture, 3D printed with 170 Kg of 100% recycled polypropylene, embodies both of these elements.
Ørsted and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF Denmark) are testing how 3D printed reefs can benefit biodiversity in the Kattegat, a strait between Denmark and Sweden, which is experiencing a historically low cod stock. This is the first time 3D printed reefs are being used in Danish waters, and they will complement existing boulder reefs that Ørsted established when constructing the Anholt Offshore Wind Farm in 2012-13.
IAAC, the Institute for Advanced Architecture, continues its research towards 3D printing architecture with local earthen materials by completing a housing prototype in the natural park of Collseolla, in the outskirts of Barcelona, this winter. The result is a small constructed prototype with 100% natural and locally sourced material recipes that will be inaugurated with a live event on February 28th [register here].
Space architecture and technology firm AI SpaceFactory presented its designs for LINA, the first 3D printed lunar outpost developed in collaboration with NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC) engineers and planetary scientists.
A plan from Texas A&M University researchers to 3D print new resilient buildings using hempcrete has the potential to lower the environmental impact of traditional construction methods and make housing more affordable and available, according to an article posted on the University’s College of Engineering website by Alyson Chapman.