3D printers have been used successfully to print all kinds of strange and wonderful things. We’ve had satellites, we’ve had chocolates and deserts and we’ve even had prosthetic jawbones!
Well now a company in China has actually managed to 3D print an entire five-story apartment building. And if that’s not enough for you, they’ve also managed to print a 1,100 square meter villa.
This is something of an exciting prospect in construction and architecture and it’s potentially very exciting for property development moving forward. This isn’t the first example of the technology being used to create buildings – in fact the company WinSun previously claims to have constructed 10 houses within 24 hours using the proprietary device.
The system is a ‘3D printer array’ that was developed by one Ma Yihe, who has been creating 3D printers of various kinds for over a decade. It stands an impressive 6.6 meters high and is 10 meters by 40 meters. It uses a material that’s created from glass and tailings and adds this to a base of quick-drying cement and a quick-drying agent.
In theory this could one day become standard practice allowing for the rapid construction of much more affordable housing.
