How a Chinese Company 3D-Printed Ten Houses in a Single Day

[cirr]

April 4th，2014

Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

This month, architects in Amsterdam started work on the world's first completely 3D-printed house. It'll take three years and quite a bit of money to finish. Meanwhile, in Shanghai, a company claims to have printed ten houses with inexpensive industrial scraps in less than a day. What's the difference?

It depends on your definition of 3D printing. Both projects are using massive 3D printers; in Shanghai, it's 490 feet long, 33 feet wide, and 20 feet deep. Rather than expensive plastic, though, the Chinese company WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co is printing with a concrete aggregate "made in part from recycled construction waste, industrial waste, and tailings," according to the Architect's Newspaper. Each of these homes costs less than £3,012.

But the biggest difference is that WinSun is printing its houses in pieces, then fully assembling them on site, at least according to 3Ders.org's recent report. In Amsterdam, every single room, detail, and piece of furniture will emerge fully formed. This is why some commenters are likely to argue that WinSun's project isn't truly 3D-printed.

But let's not quibble over syntax here. If these claims are true, WinSun is printing an inexpensive, sturdy home in mere hours for very little money. The company says the process would be perfect for fabricating homes for the impoverished and displaced—a major issue in some Chinese cities. In my eyes, that's far closer to the early dream of architectural 3D printing buildings: To harness rapid prototyping to build housing that's cheap, fast, and in the words of WinSun, "dignified." The concept of spending three years and millions of dollars to print a 13-room home out of plastic, by comparison, feels like nothing more than a gimmick.

According to 3Ders.org, WinSun has plans to build 100 factories in China to "collect and transform" construction waste into aggregate for its machines. Right now, there isn't much more information about the project online, but we've reached out to the company for more information. [A|N Blog; 3Ders.org]

3d printing, china, winsun, printing houses

How a Chinese Company 3D-Printed Ten Houses in a Single Day | Gizmodo UK

 

[cirr]

April 03, 2014

Ten full sized 3D printed buildings in Shanghai

Back in 2008, University of Southern California Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis said new technology will soon allow massive 3D printers to build entire multi-level houses in under a day.

Nextbigfuture covered Contour Crafting in the USA back in 2008 and other companies in Europe who have talked about using large inkjet like printers to use cement as ink to make buildings. However, the US and European companies had not made complete full size buildings.



A group of ten 3D printed houses, 200 square meters (2153 square feet) each, recently appears in Shanghai, China. These building were created entirely out of concrete using a gigantic 3D printer, and each costs only 30,000 RMB ($4,800).

3ders.org reports that the company behind these 3D printed building, Shanghai WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co, said it has for years been working on developing the system and its materials. The company owns 77 national patents of construction materials, such as glass fiber reinforced gypsum and special glass fiber reinforced cement.

WinSun's 150(L) x 10(W) x 6.6(H) m gigantic 3D printer is capable of printing entire building within hours. The 'ink' it used is based on high-grade cement and glass fiber. Like traditional 3D printers, the system carefully spills out those materials layer by layer, consistently building upward.




Youtube Contour Crafting videos

Ten full sized 3D printed buildings in Shanghai

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

When is SkyNet going to print up some cyborgs?

 

[+4vsgorillas-Apebane]

When is SkyNet going to print up some cyborgs?

A century from now..... In China.

 

[BoQ77]

A century from now..... In China.

So China will be the place of Judgment Day ?

 

[shuttler]

Another great feat achieved through cutting edge tech in China
I wonder if the likes of Broad Group will think anything about it

So China will be the place of Judgment Day ?

that will never happen in China
You may have more chances to see judgement day occurring in vietnam india japan usa!