The first tenants of the Netherlands’ first 3D-printed concrete house – shaped like a boulder and inspired by The Flintstones – received their keys today.
Elize Lutz and Harrie Dekkers will move into the 94-sq-m detached house with its spacious living room and two bedrooms, printed in the Bosrijk neighbourhood of Eindhoven.
Initiated by the Municipality of Eindhoven and Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), it is the first of five printed structures planned in the consortium’s "Project Milestone" initiative, which aims to develop an industrial home-printing capability in the country to help tackle its housing shortage.
"This is not about the ambition of some scientist, it’s about the rock-hard necessity of making major changes to the way we build," said Theo Salet, Professor of Concrete Structures at TU/e, who led research.
- See what it looks like inside …
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"Understand that we need to build in the Netherlands alone a million homes in 10 years and make 7.5 million homes drastically more sustainable in 30 years. In addition, infrastructure from the 1960s and 1970s is heading towards the end of its design life. We are facing an unprecedented challenge."
The municipality was co-initiator and facilitator; TU/e developed models to enable 3D concrete printing; Saint-Gobain Weber Beamix developed the concrete mortar; Witteveen+Bos advised on engineering; contractor Van Wijnen built the house; and property investor Vesteda bought it to rent.
The house consists of 24 elements printed at a plant in Eindhoven, which were transported by truck to the building site and assembled on a foundation. Roof, frames and finishings were then added.
Thick insulation gives an energy performance coefficient of 0.25.
The five houses of Project Milestone will be built in sequence so lessons from one can be passed to the next.
Theo Salet said the next challenge will be adding a second storey.
Image: The first house of 3D printed concrete with its first tenants, Elize Lutz and Harrie Dekkers (Photograph by Bart van Overbeeke/ Courtesy of Eindhoven University of Technology)
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Nice try, But not as attractive as the Flint Stones, and more the size of a 2 car garage – perhaps nice temporary shelter for homeless until they could find something that had a more human ‘touch’ with some classical details then a structure in tune with AI robots. Or did AI design it
The lack of windows requires places for more candles and oil lamps… or electric consumption.: is that a good trade-off?