Mar 27, 2018 | By Tess

3D printed housing has really been gaining in momentum the past couple of weeks with the unveiling of New Story’s $4,000 3D printed home and the announcement of a 3D printed building in Milan. Now, just outside of the French city of Nantes, a 3D printed social housing project is nearly liveable.

The 3D printed housing project is called Yhnova, and is the product of a collaboration between the University of Nantes, Bouygues Construction, Lafarge Holcim, the Nantes Métropole Habitat organization, and TICA architectes & urbanistes. Together, the parties designed, developed, and 3D printed a 95 m² home.

Since breaking ground on the project this past September, the 3D printed Ynhova house has been inaugurated (in a ceremony held on March 21) and is preparing to welcome its first residents in June 2018.

The five-room house was constructed using a patented 3D printing method called BatiPrint3D, which was developed by researchers from the University of Nantes. The additive manufacturing process uses a laser-guided, four-meter-long robotic arm to deposit layers of different construction materials in a pre-determined shape.

Unlike other 3D printing construction processes which exclusively deposit concrete mixtures to build walls, the BatiPrint3D robotic printer extrudes three types of layers: one formwork layer made of a foam-like material, an insulating layer, and a structuring layer made from a special 3D printable concrete mixture.

The overall goal of the Yhnova 3D printed house project is to demonstrate that 3D printing technologies can be used to not only construct liveable housing structures but affordable housing. After all, the project was initiated in partnership with the Nantes Métropole Habitat organization which seeks to find alternative housing solutions for all residents.

Because the Ynhova house was also 3D printed in a wooded area near the University of Nantes campus, the collaborative team was also hoping to demonstrate that the BatiPrint3D 3D printing method could be suitable for constructing in areas that would typically be complicated to build in using traditional construction methods.

On April 7, visitors are invited to the Yhnova house open day to see the impressive 3D printed building in person. Then, in June the first residents will be given the keys to the 3D printed house. According to the University of Nantes, a family will be selected to live there based on the established social housing criteria.

As a somewhat experimental home, Yhnova will be equipped with a range of sensors and monitoring systems to keep track of the home’s air quality, humidity, temperature, as well as how the 3D printed materials are maintained. These “smart home” sensors will reportedly enable the house’s residents to cut back on energy spending.

(Images: University of Nantes)

 

 

Posted in 3D Printing Application

 

 

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