Netherlands Building World’s First 3D-Printed and Habitable Houses
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Dutch developers have a new project at hand — Project Milestone, and it will cut costs and environmental damage offering the perfect solution to the shortage of bricklayers.The Dutch city of Eindhoven is on its way to become the first-of-its-kind city withNetherlands Building World’s First 3D-Printed and Habitable Houses
Dutch developers have a new project at hand — Project Milestone, and it will cut costs and environmental damage offering the perfect solution to the shortage of bricklayers.The Dutch city of Eindhoven is on its way to become the first-of-its-kind city with habitable 3D-printed homes — an innovation that, according to its backers and developers, will revolutionize the construction industry worldwide. Among the five houses, which have been recently put into the rental market to be rented next year onwards, the smallest, two-bedrooms-flat has already attracted more than 20 applicant families, just a week after the images were published.The Guardian quotes Rudy van Gurp, a manager at Dutch construction company Van Wijnen: “We like the look of the houses at the moment as this is an innovation and it is a very futuristic design, but we are already looking to a take a step further and people will be able to design their own homes and then print them out. People will be able to make their homes suit them, personalize them, and make them more aesthetically pleasing.”Project Milestone attempts to offer a solution to the lingering problem in the construction sector — the lack of supply of bricklayers. The project is conducted by the contracting firm Van Wijnen in collaboration with the Eindhoven University of Technology. Using the 3D-printing technology, the innovation will print layers of cement forming a wall, through a nozzle of a robotic arm, a first of its kind attempt to create habitable homes. [City A.M]Apart from solving the bricklayers shortage problem, it will also attempt another pressing issue on the environmental front — the damage created by cement usage. The process will have a sizeable reduction in the amount of cement used in construction while it would also reduce the cost involved in construction, according to Rudy van Gurp. He believes that it’s about five years before the usage of 3D-printing in construction becomes a “mainstream” practice. [The Guardian]The Guardian quotes Rudy van Gurp: “I think by then about 5 percent of homes will be made using a 3D printer. In the Netherlands, we have a shortage of bricklayers and people who work outside and so it offers a solution to that. It will eventually be cheaper than the traditional methods. Bricklaying is becoming more and more expensive. Alongside, bricks and the use of timber, this will be a third way, which will look like stucco [plastered] houses, which people like.”http://www.blouinartinfo.comFounder Louise Blouin Read more