Belgian company Kamp C has 3D-printed — with Europe’s biggest 3D-printer — an entire two-storey house.
Featuring 90sqm, the house was printed in one piece with a fixed printer, making it a world’s first.
Sited on the grounds of Kamp C in Westerlo, Belgium, the two-story house was printed as part of the European C3PO project with support from ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).
The idea behind the project is to use the achievement to encourage the construction industry to implement 3D concrete printing in their construction techniques.
"Unique is that we printed the house in one piece with a fixed 3D concrete printer," says Emiel Ascione, project manager at Kamp C.
"The homes that have already been printed worldwide have only one floor and are often in parts factory printed and assembled on site. We have printed the entire building envelope as a whole on the site."
The 3D-printed two-story house is three times stronger than a house built with quick building blocks. "The compressive strength of the material is three times higher than the classic rapid building block," explains Marijke Aerts, project manager at Kamp C.
This first house is a test building and it will be investigated whether the solidity will be maintained over time.
In addition to the fibres contained in the concrete, only minimal shrinkage reinforcement was used. The printing technique makes concrete formwork superfluous.
This saves an estimated sixty percent of the material, time and money. In the future, for example, a house could be printed in two days. If you add up all the printing days, the house at kamp C will be printed in barely three weeks.
