PARIS, March 12 — Europe’s largest 3D-printed building was recently inaugurated in Heidelberg, Germany. Its construction, with walls shaped like a giant wave, took just 140 working hours, presenting exciting prospects for “printing” other, even larger buildings.
Building printing specialist Peri 3D used an imposing printer from manufacturer Cobod to construct this building, which now houses a data centre. This achievement marks a breakthrough in the construction industry.
Its wave-shaped walls were assembled entirely using 3D printing technology, using Cobod’s BOD2 3D construction printer. Printing the walls of the 54-metre long, 11-metre wide and 9-metre high building took just 140 working hours for a total surface area of 600 square meters. This equates to an efficiency rate of around 4 square meters per hour, highlighting the progress made by this type of technology.
The building stands out not only for its construction method. It has no windows and only a few doors, which is typical of a data centre, not least for security reasons. In addition, its walls are wave-shaped, a feature that gives the building its name, “The Wave House.” Such shapes would have been difficult to achieve using conventional construction methods, but 3D printing paves the way for new creative building forms.
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In recent years, many homes and even hotels have been 3D printed. Today, it’s possible to do the same thing on the scale of much larger buildings.
Some 60 printers of this kind are currently in operation worldwide. — ETX Studio
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