3D Printed houses on the cards?

3D Printed houses on the cards?

Could 3D printing be the answer to Auckland’s housing crisis, in the Netherlands there are 3D houses being currently built, in China, Japan and Korea 3D-printed mansions are on the rise.

Across the United States, the very wealthy and some would say adventurous are beginning to look at 3D printing for building blocks and other structures for housing, but for New Zealand could this be an option?

In countries with limited restrictions and government intervention it is a lot easier to look at 3D printing or new technologies for building; however within New Zealand, numerous laws and regulations may inhibit the inclusion of our country when it comes to new building materials being used.

Nick Smith has recently identified that the state of housing especially within Auckland is a pressing issue, however opening up new blocks of land may help, though this isn’t an immediate cure, as it takes time to build whereas with 3D printing this time could be significantly reduced.

The time it takes to build a house can be months, however, once a foundation has been set and master fittings have been applied simply all that needs to be done is for a printed house to be either assembled on site, which could take a few hours, or one to be transported from a factory which would only be the commute time. With these modules that would be printed this would save time significantly, even in comparison to modular housing available on the market currently.

In upstate New York a fantastic house is being built, via 3D printing currently, although this is a luxury property, which will take years to complete due to the vastness of it, the architect Adam Kushner, states, “this project will be revolutionary”. With the printer for the project being borrowed from Italy, where the machine is currently on loan to the military. New Zealand, now has the opportunity to get on board with this and start using existing organizations within the building industry to develop these technologies and implement change which could mean not only more affordable housing but also, allow houses to be built much faster.

Recently Wanhao New Zealand, began offering a 3D printing in schools program commented on this and stated, “we create numerous small scale buildings for architects and designers and would love to see 3D printing offered as an alternative for the building industry.” Although, Wanhao printers are not designed for this scale of building and couldn’t print modular components for housing it is interesting to see them way in, as numerous other organizations are also voicing the same opinion, of new technologies required for New Zealand.

Within three years, Auckland’s population will have grown by between 10,000-20,000 which means we need to either expand into outlying suburbs or offer more housing within city limits, which means building projects need to be completed faster or new technologies need to be investigated.
Read more: www.wordcorp.co.nz
Courtesy: www.wanhao.nz

By Clark Valmont

ENDS

© Scoop Media