WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co., a Shanghai-based firm has built ten, 650-square-foot homes in just a span of 24 hours!
WinSun's homes are made of recycled industrial and construction waste. Each house is about 33 feet wide, 490 feet long and about 20 feet deep with floor-to-ceiling see through sliding doors. The cost to the firm; less than $5,000, according to Gizmodo.
The mini-village was built using assembled parts that a huge "490- by 33- by 20-foot 3-D printer" fabricated. Usually, the 3D printing machines use plastic, spitting out one layer upon another. However, for this project WinSun fed the machine with the recycled materials and printed out parts of the home. They were later manually assembled.
"We purchased parts for the printer overseas, and assembled the machine in a factory in Suzhou. Such a new type of 3D-printed structure is environment-friendly and cost-effective, Ma Yihe, CEO of WinSun told 3ders.
WinSun claims that the process is perfect for building homes to accommodate the impoverished or displaced that too at such minimal cost. Winsun also intends to build 100 factories that will amass all the industrial waste to convert into 3D printing construction material.
The Wall Street Journal has some pictures of the buildings and the assembling process.
This project is unlike the Amsterdam construction development, which will use 3D printers and plastic and concrete as materials to build the whole structure without much human intervention. Even the furniture in the building will be 3D printed. This project that will take about three years,
While the Chinese have beaten the Dutch in 3D printing construction, they also have a reputation for building homes the traditional way at exceptional speed. Broad Group, a construction firm based in China completed a three-story building in just nine days and a 30-story building in 15 days. The group now expects to take on the construction on the tallest building of the world "Sky City One" soon.
The 3D printing technology has gained much popularity of late. Everything from satellites to food is being printed through the technology. Experts believe that this method could transform urban living and building.
The building industry is one of the most polluting and inefficient industries out there. With 3-D-printing, there is zero waste, reduced transportation costs, and everything can be melted down and recycled. This could revolutionize how we make our cities," Dus' Hedwig Heinsman, architect of the Amsterdam project told The Guardian.
