News and Insights of 3D Printing and Manufacturing
New York-based 3D printing firm S-Squared 3D Printers Inc. (SQ3D) says it has completed construction of the largest 3D printed home in the world using its Autonomous Robotic Construction System (ARCS). The 3D printed building spans 500 ft² and reportedly took under 12 hours to complete.
GXN Innovation, an independent research company created by Danish architecture firm 3XN released its future vision for autonomous 3D printers. In this latest conceptual experiment involving additive manufacturing – part of the “Break the Grid” project – the firm was supported by the Dansk AM Hub, a government-supported Denmark’s platform that supports experimentation in additive manufacturing, and by MAP Architects. The result is swarms flying and diving 3D printing extrusion systems that can work autonomously to build and repair complex structures on land and in the sea.
Emaar Properties, a Dubai-based real estate developer, is reportedly planning to construct a 3D printed home in the UAE city. The project will mark Emaar’s first foray into 3D printed housing and its first step towards becoming a “leading adopter of advanced construction technologies.”
A collaboration between Digital Building Technologies and the Origen Festival in Riom, Switzerland, the installation Concrete Choreography consists of nine, individually designed, 2.7m tall columns. Each column is concrete 3D printed at full height in 2.5 hours with the process developed at ETH Zurich with the support of NCCR DFAB.
Inspired by its successful run in the NASA 3D Printed Habitat Challenge, AI SpaceFactory has decided to apply its construction 3D printing know-how to develop an eco-friendly home here on Earth. The sustainable housing project, called TERA, will be built in the heart of nature, just a couple of hours outside of New York City.
VINCI Construction, a France-based construction leader, is launching a new company focused on 3D printing high-performance concrete materials through its subsidiary Freyssinet. The company, called Concreative, offers a fully integrated service, providing support from early design stages to on-site installation.
CyBe Construction, a Dutch specialist in concrete 3D printing, has been selected as the technology provider for a 3D printed house project in the UAE. The house will be built as part of the Sharjah Research, Technology and Innovation Park (SRTI Park) initiative which aims to 3D print a series of buildings in the area with the goal of transforming the city of Sharjah into an architectural hub.
Throughout history, many Italian geniuses did not reap the benefits of their inventions. Just think of Galileo, excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church for having understood the motion of planets. Or more recently Meucci who invented the telephone only to have Graham Bell obtain the patent and build an empire with it. Many great visionaries had to leave Italy — and continue to have to leave Italy — to find someone willing to finance their ventures, starting with Columbus, who turned to the queen of Spain in order to set sail on the voyage that would lead to the Americas. The story of Enrico Dini, the man who invented the idea of 3D printing concrete houses by binder jetting, is in many ways a modern version of these: a modern odyssey for the future of construction, one that shares some similarities with these great stories.
Following a spate of horrific vehicle-related terror incidents around the world in recent years, there has been a growing effort to find effective yet subtle ways to protect pedestrians in busy areas. In London, following the London Bridge attack in 2017, conspicuous metal and concrete barriers were installed on the city’s main bridges. Though effective, they are not the most elegant solution and have drawn their fair share of criticism. In New York City’s Times Square, designer Joe Doucet recently introduced an alternative protective barrier, that blends into the urban setting.
A couple of weeks ago, a Dutch 3D printing startup named Concr3de came onto our radar when it demonstrated how its unique stone additive manufacturing technology could reproduce a damaged piece of Notre-Dame de Paris using materials sourced from the cathedral’s burnt and damaged structure.