Oct 24, 2017 | By Benedict
AMT-SPECAVIA, a Moscow-based group of machining and 3D printing companies, says it has built Europe’s first habitable 3D printed house. The residence, located in Yaroslavl and reportedly spanning almost 300 square meters, may also be Europe’s largest 3D printed building.
It’s been around two years since AMT-SPECAVIA, a group specializing in construction additive manufacturing, started work on a livable 3D printed house in Yaroslavl, Russia. And although “livable house” might sound like a tautology, it was actually a highly ambitious project when you consider the current state of architectural 3D printing.
Because while 3D printing in the construction industry is a hot talking point right now, even the most advanced companies in the field have struggled to create buildings that are large enough or strong enough to be considered habitable.
Many predict that large, 3D printed apartment blocks will appear sooner rather than later, but at present the landscape is scarce. Just browse through our list of 3D printed buildings and construction projects from last year: many of the designs are spectacular, but many were made purely for show.
AMT-SPECAVIA wanted to do things differently, by building a residential building that not only grabbed some media attention, but which could actually house a local Yaroslavl family once finished.
“It was important for us to set a precedent—to show in practice that 3D construction technology is working,” commented Alexander Maslov, general director of the AMT-SPECAVIA Group.
Today, the project is indeed finished, with the group installing plumbing, heating, and electricity—ready for the first residents of the 3D printed house.
But it's obviously more than just an average Russian home. The Moscow 3D printing group claims that its 3D printed building, with a total area of 298.5 square meters, is the largest 3D printed building in Europe, as well as the continent’s only habitable printed residence.
From what we know about other 3D printed structures, both of those claims could be true, though many will of course debate what counts as a “3D printed building,” depending on how much of it is 3D printed and how much of it is made using other fabrication techniques. (Earlier today we saw just how impressive a 3D printed floor can be.)
Not every part of the Yaroslavl house is 3D printed, of course, but large internal sections of it are. These 3D printed sandcrete forms were fabricated off-site during a one-month period in 2015.
“We printed the building in parts (the walls of the house, decorative elements, the tower), took the parts to the construction site, and assembled them as a LEGO kit,” Maslov explained. “Since then, of course, the equipment has been improved: both the speed of printing and the quality. But even our first model proved to be reliable and efficient equipment.”
AMT-SPECAVIA used its own S-6044 construction 3D printer, a machine with a build area of 3.5 x 3.6 x 1 meters, for the house. Easily available M-300 sandcrete was used as the printing material for the large structural sections of the building, with each printed layer measuring 10 mm high and 30 to 50 mm wide.
The 3D printing group was able to do all its printing over a one-month period thanks to the S-6044’s printing speed of up to 15 square meters per hour.
With the 3D printed house expected to be fit for habitation by the end of October, Maslov evidently considers the project to have been a success: “To paraphrase the words of the famous Russian song, we managed to make a fairy tale come true.”
The SPECAVIA company was founded in 2009, and has been making construction 3D printers since 2015.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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