Mar 23, 2018 | By Benedict

Engineering company Arup and CLS Architects have announced plans to present what is being heralded as “Europe’s first 3D printed one-bedroom house” at the upcoming Salone del Mobile design showcase in Milan. The event, hosted from April 17 to 22, will feature the 3D printed home in Milan’s central Piazza Cesare Beccaria, where guests can admire its 3D printed structure.

(Image: CLS Architects)

The house itself, dubbed 3D Housing 05, is currently being 3D printed on site using one of CyBe Construction’s robotic additive manufacturing systems. The concrete material being used to build up the house’s walls layer by layer was developed in collaboration with Italcementi, a global concrete and construction material company.

Once the house’s walls are completed, the final parts of the structure, including roof, doors, and windows, will be assembled. If all goes to plan, Salone del Mobile visitors can expect to find a homely one-storey building with a living room, bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom in the middle of Milan’s iconic pavilion.

CLS Architects, which came up with the house’s design, described the building in the following way: “The interiors have been designed with reference to archetypes of the past, in a dialogue with the 3D language. The concrete composite—the basic construction material—is juxtaposed with equally strong and timeless materials: the brass of the window frames, the marble of the bath fixtures, the smoothed plaster as one of the possible wall finishes, the sheets of polished brass for a reinterpreted industrial kitchen.

(Image: Arup)

“The stratification of the concrete generates a pattern, a surface on which climbing plants can grow spontaneously, reaching the roof which becomes an urban garden. The project comes from the desire to think about our future, to improve quality of life through the revolution of technology.”

A big part of the demonstration will be to emphasize how technologies such as 3D printing and new sustainable construction materials can be combined to produce eco-friendly buildings in a fast and cost-effective manner.

“The construction industry is one of the world’s biggest users of resources and emitters of CO2,” explained Guglielmo Carra, Arup’s Europe Materials Consulting Lead. “We want to bring a paradigm shift in the way the construction industry operates and believe that 3D printing technology is critical to making buildings more sustainable and efficient. It creates less waste during construction and materials can be repurposed and reused at the end of their life.”

(Image: Arup)

In terms of repurposing, the 3D Housing 05 structure—which spans an area of 100 square meters—is designed to be easily taken apart and relocated. This means that when the building is no longer needed, its materials can be reused in future projects, contributing to a more circular construction economy.

After the Salone del Mobile wraps up on April 22, the 3D printed house will reportedly be disassembled and constructed again at a new location.

The companies behind the innovative 3D printed housing project are: CLS Architects, an Italian architecture firm which was responsible for the building’s design; cement specialist Italcementi; engineering firm Arup, which provided structural engineering and materials consulting services; and CyBe Construction, a Dutch company specializing in construction 3D printing.

Another 3D printed house recently made headlines: a $4,000 3D printed house built by Silicon Valley's New Story.

 

 

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