• We also have a ranking of the most innovative house 3D printer companies

3D printing offers the chance to build houses faster, more accurately and cheaper than ever before. We will be showcasing some interesting 3D printed house projects that already exist, the advantages and disadvantages of 3D printed houses, and mentioning some 3D printer companies who are working hard to commercialize the tech.

We have divided this complete guide to 3D printed houses into three parts:

• Part 1: Five key advantages of 3D printed houses, and how 3D printed buildings would benefit us
• Part 2: A selection of the most exciting 3D printed mansion, house and apartment projects

We have also published the complete history of 3D printing, which you can view here.

Part 1: Advantages of 3D printed houses

Environmentally Friendliness: 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing and only uses up the exact material required to build a house. Therefore, in the building of a 3D printed house, less concrete and other materials are used up than traditional methods, benefiting the environment. Concrete production is one of the main pollutants, so minimizing this is key.

3D printed houses cost less: A large part of the costs in building a house is the labor involved, as houses take so long to construct. A house 3D printer only requires one person to monitor it, thereby vastly reducing costs involved in building a house – though there is the counterargument of putting people out of work.

Moreover, the University of Tartu, Estonia, with the Estonian University of Life Sciences, have collaborated to create a low-cost 3D printed house concrete material made primarily of peat which could reduce the material cost of building a house by up to 10x! Additionally, because peat is so common it could be dug up locally — such as in deprived third-world countries — and used to build houses, so materials do not have to be shipped there.

3D printed houses can be made quicker: Houses take between four and six months to build on average, but a 3D printer can print the structure of a house in just a day. With effective contractors to put doors, roofs and windows in, this means completed houses could be built in just a few weeks.

More options architecturally: Because 3D printing allows for accuracy far beyond what humans are capable of, complex designs can be created by 3D printers of all shapes and sizes. This is beneficial not just aesthetically, but also in the ability to create houses customized to be as efficient as possible as retaining heat, saving money, as well as creating environments that disabled people can live in comfortably.

Ability to help those in need: Being able to create basic shelter structures quickly, cheaply, with minimal labor and with accessible materials makes 3D printing the only clear option for the task. It is no wonder therefore that much research is being conducted in order to refine the technology, and with non-profits such as New Story attempting to utilize 3D printing in the third world.

However, it is still important to be realistic.

3D printed houses are likely not as cheap as the companies who have built 3D printed houses claim they are. They only list the cost of the house in terms of the materials consumed to build it, omitting key factors such as labor, the cost of the printer (renting or buying), interior and external finishing, and wiring, pipes and other key foundations.

The house in Nantes, France built for £170K is an accurate cost for a habitable 3D printed building, not the outlandish claims to build a fully-functioning domicile for $4,000.

Part 2: The most Exciting 3D Printed Houses & 3D Printed Buildings

1. World’s Largest 3D Printed House by Apis Cor in Dubai

If you hear of an exciting or innovative building project, there is a high likelihood it will involve Dubai. Dubai have been championing ambitious architectural projects for years, and have recently made the bold move of aiming to have 25% of new buildings 3D printed by 2030.

This administrative building comprises two floors, featuring beautiful 3D printed architecture born out of an ongoing collaboration between Russian 3D printed house company Apis Cor and the Dubai Municipality.

We expect much more to come from Apis Cor in Dubai as this building is considered by them to be just a test for larger 3D printed house projects for the future. It is claimed to have been to test whether Apis Cor’s concrete 3D printer could print a building in Dubai’s heat — and passed with flying colors.

Expect more very soon: 3D printed apartment blocks, skyscrapers, landmarks and more.

For the full story covering the world’s largest 3D printed building, click here.

2. First family move into a 3D printed house in France

• 3D printed house price: £170,000
• Located: France

In July 2018, a French family moved into their new four-bedroom home, becoming the first family to live in a 3D printed house. This was a collaboration between the city council, housing association, and the University of Nantes. The goal was to build a prototype with the long-term goal of creating 3D printed houses that are cheaper and faster to build than traditional houses. The house cost around £176,000 – 20% less than traditional construction.

This 1022 square foot 3D printed house took 54 hours to build — though this was just the structure. An additional four months for fitting the windows, doors, and other parts was necessary before the home was finished. The team behind this extraordinary achievement now believe they could create a similar house in 33 hours, citing additional knowledge and tech advances.

Benoit Furet, the man behind the project, believes 3D printed houses offer a solution to the growing housing shortage and for social housing in the future. Moreover, he claims that with growing economies of scale and technological advances, 3D printed houses will become 40% cheaper to build in 10-15 years.

Perhaps the most exciting part of this build however is the architecture – the house was built to curve around environmentally-protected trees. This is simply not plausible for traditional builds as they are more restricted by the shape of bricks, whereas 3D housebuilding can create curved shapes without issue. This offers potential for more compelling designs, as well as creating custom houses to suit disabled people.

3. Apis Cor 3D Printed House Built in 24 Hours

• 3D printed house price: $10,000
• Located: Russia

Probably the most famous and viral 3D printed house build, this interestingly shaped house was built back in 2017 in just one day – while it snowed! According to the team the house cost just over $10,000 to build, including the furnishings with windows and doors, though we will discuss why these figures may not tell the full story further on in this article.

A viral hit, this was definitely the moment the world woke up to the possibility of 3D printed concrete houses in the future. This viral video not only proved it could be done, but that 3D printed dwellings could be built faster than people could build them, and the cost of a 3D printed house was far lower.

Apis Cor’s build brought 3D printed structures into the public eye, encouraging others to get involved and democratize 3D printed house building.

4. ICON & New Story 3D Printed House in Austin, Texas USA

• 3D printed house cost: $10,000
• Located: USA

Another recent viral story, this collaboration between ICON and New Story made headlines when they 3D printed a house in Texas, USA earlier this year. The prototype 3D printed house built cost the companies approximately $10,000, though they assert that this number can be brought down to $4,000 going forwards.

The house, like Apis Cor’s 3D printed concrete house in Russia, was built in 24 hours, and is part of ICON’s longer-term plan to assist in infrastructure in poorer parts of the world through housing. Non-profit ICON has already built over 800 houses in Haiti, El Salvador, Bolivia and Mexico, and plans to utilize 3D printing to create low-cost houses in these areas – ICON currently source local workers but some areas may not have the skilled builders required.

Therefore, 3D printed houses offer a solution to this lack of skilled builder problem. Large construction 3D printers can be brought to these impoverished areas where there are few skilled builders to build homes for people in poverty. This is an example of 3D printing helping improve the lives of society’s most vulnerable, and we commend ICON and New Story for their fantastic work here.

This is also a project we are actually likely to see develop. New Story is Co-Founded and advised by some very powerful and successful people, including Glassdoor’s CEO, and Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian. Many of the people attached to the project have a track record of execution and success, so we look forward to seeing the project’s progress. Since the Texas project they have also printed a series of 3D printed houses in Mexico.

ICON Part 2: 3D printed home community in Austin

• 3D printed house price: $450,000
• Located: Texas

ICON has been keeping busy since our last update and has now formally listed their first 3D printed home for sale on the streets of Austin, Texas.

Joining forces this time with developer 3Strands, ICON has used its Vulcan technology to construct four multi-story buildings in East Austin ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 square feet, featuring modern open plans and timeless interiors.

This is in conjunction with their new East 17^th Street initiative, a project that hopes to use this innovative technology to build a small community of 3D printed homes in the growing area of East Austin.

With the help of Logan Architecture, they’ve designed 4 styles of homes that take around 5-7 days to build and are planned to be move-in-ready by the summer of 2021.

5. Coachella’s 3D Printed Neighborhood

• 3D printed house price: $595,000
• Located: California

We’ve all heard of the Hollywood-infused Coachella music festival, but have you ever heard of Coachella’s 3D printed neighborhood?

Mighty Buildings, a 3D printing construction and technology company, and Palari Group, a specialized sustainable real estate company, are set to begin building what’s been dubbed the world’s first 3D printed neighborhood by the Guardian, CNN, and other major news outlets.

The neighborhood is named Rancho Mirage and will sit nestled in the waves of Coachella Valley. 

Mighty Buildings and Palari Group plan to develop 15 homes by 2022, each consisting of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a terrace, and a swimming pool within 1,450 square feet of space. 

Made from a stone composite material, the walls are said to join together like Legos, according to Palari CEO Basil Starr.

There’s also the customizable option to add a 700 square foot extra residence, or AUD, to the property that will consist of two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Rancho Mirage has the potential to become the future blueprint of neighborhoods moving forward, not only for its immense sustainability but also for the incredible solution it poses for the global housing crisis.

Future News: Keep your eyes peeled for the 3D printed school Mighty Buildings has planned with Thinking Huts to open in Madagascar later this year. 

6. The COBOD BOD2 Printer Takes Over Europe

• 3D printed house price: N/A
• Located: Belgium

Sustainable building company Kamp C 3D printed an entire two-story house in Belgium’s Flanders region with Europe’s largest 3D printer.

The finished two-story terraced home came in just under 1,000 square feet. It’s a low-energy home with a green roof but still manages to blend seamlessly into the surrounding architecture.

The most impressive aspect of this project however is the construction process itself. 

Traditionally, being a two-story building, construction would’ve taken place in two parts, off-site in a separate facility. But Kamp C ingeniously used the stationary COBOD BOD2 concrete printer to print it on-site in one piece.

COBOD, or Construction of Building on Demand, developed the BOD2 3D printer, which operates on three axes, making it possible to print in a circular design on-site, and more importantly, print multiple floors.

It’s not only about looks though. According to Kamp C project manager Marijke Aerts:

Construction began on March 19^th, 2020, and took around three weeks to print, but Kamp C believes future homes can be completed in just two days.

COBOD Part 2

The COBOD BOD2 printer isn’t finished making headlines yet.

Over in Wallenhausen, Germany, German-based construction company PERI Group started construction on a 3D printed three-story multi-family apartment building, following the success of the two-story home they printed earlier that year.

The building will contain 4,090 square feet of live-in space and hold five apartments and a basement. The floorplans will vary between single occupants and families.

Construction began in November of 2020 with an anticipated finish of March-April 2021, so we expect to see them gracing headlines again very soon.

7. 3D Printed “Office of the Future” in Dubai

• 3D printed building price: $140,000
• Located: Dubai

Dubai is always making headlines for being ambitious and outlandish in its declarations of future goals – none more so than their claim that 25% of buildings will be built using 3D printing by 2030. And they’re backing this up with action; this office — claimed to be the most advanced 3D printed building in the world — cost roughly $140,000 to build (not including finishing details) and took 17 days.

Affectionately named the “office of the future”, the building was created by a 20-foot-tall concrete 3D printer using a robotic arm to deposit cement. Only one employee was needed to monitor the house 3D printer whilst it printed, and seven employees worked on building components of the office whilst the printer worked.

Additionally, 10 electricians and other specialists worked on the inner workings of the office across the 17-day build. We cannot therefore call it a completely 3D printed house, as other workers filled in various other components. But 3D printing has never claimed to be able to insert complex electrical systems as it prints, just create the structure in record time. With this project showing huge ambition, perhaps Dubai will become a world leader in 3D printed houses.

8. SQ4D Releases First 3D Printed Home for Sale

• 3D printed house: $299,999
• Located: New York

SQ4D, previously charmed the world in January 2020 when they built the then world’s largest 3D printed home, but now it’s charming us again, as they officially announce the first 3D printed home to receive a certification of occupancy in the US.

It’s currently listed for sale on Zillow at $299,999 – 50% cheaper than traditional new builds in the area.

The 1,400 square foot two-story home is made from special concrete material and boasts three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a 2.5 door covered garage.

However, the real cleverness is found in their patent-pending ARCS technology.

ARCS, or Autonomous Robotic Construction System, is a low-power consumption technology that robotically builds the house on-site. Along with printing the exterior and interior walls, it also prints utility conduits, siding, and sheathing, effectively taking an entire crew’s worth of labor down to three people.

With ARCS, each home took only 48 hours of print time over a few weeks.

When discussing the power and implications this technology could pose for the future, SQ4D’s director of operations Kirk Andersen had this to say:

9. Gaia Italy 3D Printed Concrete House

• 3D printed apartment price: $1,000
• Located: Italy

Italian house 3D printing company WASP built ‘Gaia’, a 3D printed hut made from a mix of concrete and mud-based material. The 215 square foot structure took 10 days to complete, though the total time when accounting for all the furnishings and additions would be longer. The most extraordinary part is that the hut cost just $1,000 in materials to build, though this doesn’t factor in labor and other costs.

• WASP make a number of desktop delta FDM printers. You can also view our ranking of the best delta 3D printers.

Like New Story’s plans for the developing world, this interesting prototype may form the basis for building houses in poorer countries. In more deprived areas where the imminent problem is shelter rather than wiring and pipes inside houses, these cheap 3D printed houses offer an effective solution to a real crisis.

10. Project Milestone, Eindhoven — Building 5 3D printed condos in Holland

• 3D printed building price: N/A
• Located: Holland

Project Milestone – the code name for the project to develop five habitable and beautifully shaped homes in Eindhoven, Holland, is a fascinating collaboration between Houben and Van Mierlo Architecten, Van Wijnen, and the Eindhoven University of Technology.

Pioneered as a solution to the shortage of skilled bricklayers in the Netherlands, the first of these houses – and the first 3D printed house for sale – attracted over 20 interested buyers in its first week on the market.

Though currently only the cement structure of the houses are 3D printed, with advances in technology it is hoped that by the time the fifth house is built that other features, such as drainage pipes, will also be made using the house 3D printer. This will further reduce costs and influence 3D printing’s adoption in housebuilding.

11. Czech Out the Floating 3D Printed Home PRVOK

• 3D printed house price: N/A
• Located: Czech Republic

No home design is safe from the evolution of technology as the Czech Republic sets sail on the new, more or less, 3D printed houseboat. This 462 square foot 3D printed house may be tiny, but it packs a serious punch in terms of gumption and sheer originality.

Called the PRVOK, the house has space for two, including a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. 

It’s devoid of all sharp angles, consisting of only curves, and is printed with an external and internal layer that’s filled with insulation in between. The house is also fitted with eco-tech, from a recirculating shower to a green roof.

So, imagine a hobbit home from the rolling hills of the shire meets the rivers of a bustling metropolis.

PRVOK’s main focus was on speed and efficiency, claiming to be seven times faster than building a traditional brick house.

It’s made from specially formulated concrete with nano polymers that harden faster than normal concrete. Within the first 24 hours, it registers at the standard hardness of a brick house, and after 28 days it’s hardened to that of a bridge. 

It’s claimed this house can last up to 100 years.

Needless to say, we’re excited and hopeful to see these homes floating through our waterways in the near future.

12. 3D Housing 05 – Milan Design Week 3D printed building

• 3D printed house price: N/A
• Located: Italy

A collaboration between engineering firm Arup and architecture studio CLS Architetti, and 3D printed by CyBe Construction; this stylish 3D printed house, named ‘3D Housing 05’, exhibited at Milan Design Week following its construction in November 2018.

The 3D printed home, built in a week on a Milan square using recycled concrete, is around 100 square meters and contains a living area, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and roof terrace. Prominent 3D printed house constructor CyBe Construction created the house with their concrete 3D printer; able to print a single wall in between 60 to 90 minutes.

The most exciting part is the recycled concrete, developed by Italcementi, which uses debris from demolition sites to create the 3D printable material. This can then be recycled again after the building has been demolished.

Massimiliano Locatelli, the principal architect at CLS Architetti, claims that each square meter costs €1,000 to build – half the price of traditional construction. With advances in the technology, he believes this can be reduced to between 200-300 euros in the future.

How much does a 3D printed house cost?

This question of 3D printed house cost is a common one, and just as with traditional housebuilding, it depends. Though projects such as Apis Cor’s 24-hour build cost just around $10,000, this is a far smaller and more basic house than most in the West are accustomed to.

The same is the case for ICON and New Story’s 3D printed house in Texas. The house is small, basic and the house 3D printer had already been moved there. Therefore, for a 3D printed domicile a whole family could comfortably live in, it would probably not suffice.

The most accurate project in terms of a 3D printed house’s cost is the French build in number 2 on our ranking. This project cost around $170,000 and was roughly 20% than traditional methods would have cost.

However, construction 3D printing is still in its infancy, and will likely come down in price quickly. The main costs are the materials and labor, and without any labor required except one operator to monitor the print, these costs are dramatically lower.

When will 3D printed houses be available?

Arguably, they are already available. 3D printable houses are a reality, they are just not widespread. The companies developing construction 3D printers for houses are still refining the technology, and do not have enough of these machines to build thousands of houses yet.

We are likely to see a large increase in 3D printed buildings in the next decade or two, with countries like Dubai striving to 3D print 25% of new buildings by 2030.

Can I design my own 3D printed house models?

Yes, you can. There are a variety of architecture design software tools for creating 3D models of buildings. Architecture firms use 3D printing to create miniature versions of future building projects, and house 3D printers themselves create buildings based on 3D models.

• For more information, view our ranking of the best architecture software
• We also have a ranking of the best 3D software modeling tools

Conclusion: The future of housebuilding

Though far from being perfected, the potential with 3D printed houses is exciting. It has proven to work and stand up to the elements in Europe and the USA, and really can work faster and more efficiently than people.

In poorer areas with few skills builders and little building material available, large house printers such as those by ICON and New Story offer a fantastic way to build basic huts and 3D printed shelters. If able to use locally source material, this reduces building costs dramatically, allowing for shelters to be built for those who need them most.

3D printing therefore doesn’t just promise to revolutionize construction for rich tycoons who want to boast about their latest build, but offers a scalable and effective solution to homelessness in the developing world.

The question now is how the technology will be received: will people resent concrete printers for making builders obsolete? Or will they take to them, glad that they can save them money on their dream build?

Even the most advanced house printers of the future will require skilled operators to prevent accidents, and we are a world away from a printer that can concurrently 3D print the glass windows, wooden doors, pipes, electronics and other furnishings along with the house.

House 3D printers therefore do not replace people, but complement them; doing the heavy lifting while the specialists do what they do best. It is important therefore to focus on how 3D printed houses can benefit both us and those in the third-world, and respect the advantages that 3D printed houses offer.

Yet no man has set foot on the Moon since 1972 — nobody younger than their mid-fifties has a first-person account of watching a Moon landing at home. We’re way overdue a revisit.

But things are looking up. Beyond NASA and the ESA, private companies like SpaceX are pursuing spaceflight, with Elon Musk famously saying he’ll fly humans onto Mars in the 2020s. Beyond this, he wants a million people on Mars by 2050.

And one technology is key to everything space: 3D printing.

This article covers three main areas: 

• Moon & Mars buildings — how 3D printing is key to creating Moon and Mars shelters & buildings, printing structures from local materials.
• 3D printed rockets — how 3D printing makes rockets lighter, cheaper, faster to make, and safer.
• 3D printing in space — how 3D printing in space can support multi-year space flights, save lives in the event of a disaster, and prints parts (and even organs!) in space

3D printing Moon and Mars bases in Space

Until very recently with SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket slashing costs, sending 1 kilogram to LEO (low earth orbit) cost an eye-watering $10,000. Enormous amounts of fuel are burned to generate the energy required to break free of the Earth’s gravitational pull. 

Currently we send around 7,000lbs of things to the International Space Station (ISS) every year, and this is considered acceptable because relatively for space, 250 miles is extremely close. 

The Soyuz used to transport these materials takes around 6 hours to traverse this distance and dock — but for future Moon and Mars missions, this will not suffice.

Our best alternative is manufacturing Moon and Mars shelters using locally sourced lunar or martian regolith — the soil materials found on their surfaces. Shipping the materials from Earth is far too expensive, and nonsensically impractical.

Since the mid-1990s, visionaries like Dr Behrokh Khoshnevis have been working to 3D print entire shells of houses using huge room-sized behemoths that extrude concrete, layer by layer. 

Now 25 years on, his vision is becoming a reality, with companies like Apis Cor 3D printing an entire house in 24 hours. Within the next few years it’s likely that concrete 3D printers on huge gantry systems or using robotic arms will start printing houses near you.

But before his vision came to fruition with his company, Contour Crafting, it almost never happened for Dr Khoshnevis. In 2008, the US housing market collapsed — covered in films like The Big Short — and all his support from the industry vanished overnight as companies cut costs and laid off workers.

Without any funding or support to develop his construction 3D printing, Khoshnevis turned to space. But could he adapt his concrete extrusion technologies to create structures on the Moon?

NASA began testing whether Contour Crafting technologies would work in microgravity, as well as whether they could print with materials they had which mimicked lunar regolith. Two NASA Grand Prizes followed in 2014 and 2016 as the company demonstrated they could 3D print structures even in a vacuum.

This is no mean feat; the lack of an atmosphere or gravity make it far more difficult to print than on Earth. Andrew Rush, President at Made In Space, explains this in depth in an interview with the Observer: 

“[3D printing in space is different as] we don’t have the benefit of gravity to help us put things where we want to put them, so we have to rely on other forces to do the depositing of material.

“Also, in a zero-gravity environment, we don’t have any natural convection like air currents that move naturally to help with cooling. So we have to build thermal control into the 3D printing system to keep the hot parts hot and the cool parts cool.

“One of the great things about microgravity, though, is that we can actually make structures that wouldn’t be able to support their own mass if they were on Earth.”

Dr Khoshnevis has since turned his attention back to 3D printing houses on Earth, and no longer focuses on space. But many others are pushing boundaries.

See also: our feature story on 3D printing in construction.

The European Space Agency (ESA) first published plans in 2013 to 3D print a Moon base using lunar soil. They partnered with a consortium of experts including Foster + Partners, who designed a 3D printed shelter that shields astronauts from radiation as well as micrometeorites, with a built-in pressured inflatable area for astronauts to live in. 

Foster + Partners’ design fits four people. Once a lunar lander reaches and lands on the Shackleton crater near the Moon’s South Pole, it carefully drops a capsule onto the lunar surface. At one end of the capsule, a dome gradually inflates to form the blueprint the 3D printed shelter will be built on.

The lunar lander also contains two space 3D printer robots that resemble farmer tractors. They use a scoop on one side to harvest and deliver lunar regolith, depositing it on top of the inflatable dome. The other side has a robotic arm 3D printer that turns this soil into solid structure.

Gradually, solid 3D printed lunar structure is built over the dome, protecting the four astronauts from meteorites and gamma radiation. The original capsule acts as an airlock, with the astronauts able to live within the inflated dome area underneath the protective shell of 3D printed lunar regolith.

As only the original capsule and the inflatable dome need to be shipped, over 90% of the lunar shelter comprises lunar material. This is an enormous advantage compared with shipping everything from Earth.

To test their idea, they used a D-Shape 3D printer provided by Monolite UK — D-Shape, along with Contour Crafting, were tested by NASA for 3D printing in space — to print a 1.5-ton hollow cell block. Based on current research, Foster + Partners believe it would take a few months to completely completely build one lunar dome shelter on the Moon.

However, a major issue for 3D printing methods like the binder jetting-based technology in D-Shape 3D printers is they use liquids, and unprotected liquids boil away in a vacuum.

To counter this, researchers at Scuola Superior Sant’Anna in Pisa, Italy, experimented with inserting the space 3D printer’s nozzle beneath a simulated regolith material layer. Conveniently, according to Enrico Dini, inventor of D-Shape’s 3D printing technology, basalt rocks sourced from an Italian volcano are a 99.8% match to lunar regolith, so they can test their methods on similar material.

Small 2mm droplets were found to remain trapped within the soil underground, an encouraging sign for 3D printing on the Moon.

Another issue to 3D printing solid, habitable structures on the Moon are the wild variations in surface temperature. The Moon can oscillate between 125°C during its 13.5-day day, to -175°C during its 13.5-day night. Generally, the least volatile climate is found nearest the Moon’s poles, so any permanent settlements are likely to be set up there.

There are also other problems like keeping out lunar dust, which is dangerous to inhale.

But overall, the materials abundant in space and on planets create possibilities to 3D print without having to ship building materials over. As long as we have a good understanding of the local materials, 3D printers can be adapted to print with them, and create shelters and walls, landing pads, roads, and hangars on other planets and moons.

Some companies have already created designs based on local physics, climates and other factors to imagine what these 3D printed space colony dwellings would look like. Architectural design agency AI Space Factory have created designs for Mars astronaut shelters.

AI Space Factory’s Marsha Project envisions tall, thin martian dwellings able to house four astronauts made from local martian materials like basalt. The long, thin design is effective for countering Mars’ tough atmospheric and thermal pressures.

The egg-shaped design therefore minimizes mechanical stresses at the top and bottom of the building, and being higher up offers astronauts wider vantage points for studying weather and cloud formations. Additionally, the construction space 3D printer has to travel less widely to build a narrow structure, improving speeds and reliability.

3D Printing in Spacecraft & Rockets

3D printing in rockets, spacecraft and components of engines is nothing new. SpaceX and Boeing use hundreds of 3D printed parts in their rockets, highlighting advantages in printing in-house, reducing weight, reducing the number of parts, and speeding up iteration times.

3D printing is well suited to space as despite the increasing numbers of launches for satellites and other missions, rocket parts do not need to be mass-produced or made in large quantities. Additive manufacturing excels in printing accurate, light and strong parts as either one-offs or in low quantities, on-demand. Alternatives like metallic injection molding have minimum runs of hundreds of thousands of parts, so for space, 3D printing is far better suited.

Newer space companies have taken 3D printing’s uses to another level. Relativity Space boast the world’s largest metal 3D printer, based in their Stargate factory. Stargate works via large robotic arms using Directed Energy Deposition (DED) to make rocket bodies, and they also use Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS) to 3D print their Aeon engines.

Observing the long build times and even longer iteration times, American company Relativity Space began their mission to build the first autonomous rocket factory, using advanced machine-learning and analytics along with 3D printing to build entire rockets. 

They recognized early that much of the expenses associated with building rockets comes from the labor required to turn raw materials into rocket components and make sure nothing goes wrong during launch. 

One of the main issues with rockets is that with their complexity they have so many parts, with exponentially more interactions between all these parts. With so many individual interactions between parts, the number of possible errors is magnified. With less parts comes less interactions, and therefore less safety issues or expensive verification.

Rather than the 100,000+ parts associated with traditional rocket builds, Relativity Space aim for 1,000 parts or less, meaning they can build quicker — they claim they can go from raw materials to flight in 60 days — and iterate in record time — they say in just 6 months. Rather than abiding by industry-standard 12-24 month build and iteration times, Relativity Space tested five versions of their Aeon engine in just 14 months.

Previously-used manufacturing techniques built rockets that required more parts because they were not capable of creating the geometries to build these structures in a single part. 3D printing can create far more intricate geometries, as for example DMLS metal parts sit in a powder bed which prevents any overhangs or delicate areas from deforming during the printing process.

With 3D printing no welding or manual human tooling is used, reducing parts and therefore part interactions, allowing Relativity Space to move faster. Solid parts without any welding are also stronger, and therefore safer.

The Apollo missions used a Saturn V rocket to first land on the Moon, comprising around 3 million parts in total. Relativity’s DMLS 3D printed Aeon 1 engine requires just three, and they want to bring this down to one single part.

As they control their means of production within their factory, Relativity Space can quickly improve not only the designs of rockets and parts, but improve speed, efficiency and quality by using the same analytics and knowledge accumulation to improve the factory.

Their first rocket, the Terran I, is the world’s first 3D printed rocket. Able to launch up to 1,250kg into low-earth orbit, Relativity Space say the Terran I is among the most cost-effective launchers in the world, with dedicated missions costing $12M. They are due to launch the first Terran 1 in late 2021.

Despite only being founded in 2015, Relativity Space has quickly grown to over 230 employees and taken over $680M investment, with a recent $500M investment round valuing the company at $2.3 billion. Having proven 3D printing in space can revolutionize production, cutting weight that is so important in spaceflight, Relativity look set to further impact space travel in the near future.

Not far away, another space company is using 3D printing to create lighter, safer rocket engines with far fewer parts. 

Founded in 2006 and now with over 500 employees, Rocket Lab’s Electron rocket is powered by their 3D printed Rutherford engine. Weighing just 35kg, the Electron rocket features a 3D printed combustion chamber, injector, main propellant valves and pump. The rocket’s name is extra appropriate given that these parts were 3D printed using electron beam melting (EBM).

The first Rutherford engine tests began and the end of 2016, and since then over 200 models have been 3D printed. The lighter weight makes for cheaper satellite launches, and Rocket Lab are also involved in private Moon spaceflight to put CubeSats — miniature satellites 3D printed in PEEK — into lunar orbit for NASA to conduct space research.

NASA and the ESA have also ultilized 3D printing in their space research and plans. NASA 3D print rocket parts including nozzles, thrust chambers and even propulsion chambers within their RAMPT project, cutting down on the number of components required and creating lighter liquid rocket engines.

The ESA have published case studies describing how using 3D printing to print a space-bound titanium on-off valve negated the need to weld anything together, and without the weld — a point of weakness — it was safer and 40% lighter, making it far cheaper to launch.

It’s not all sunshine and roses, there are difficulties with post-processing — and in some cases, precision. But 3D printing rockets and spacecraft parts at the very least promises to make launches significant cheaper by shaving off weight.

Beyond rockets, Mars Rover-esque vehicle concepts have been released, designed to roam the foreign soils of other planets and moons. The Audi Lunar Quattro was designed by a German team and supported by Audi: a small rover able to traverse the Moon’s bumpy surface featuring aluminum and titanium 3D printed solar panels that power its electric motors and cameras.

These 3D printed parts helped cut the Lunar Quattro’s weight down to 35kg, and the rover is slated for a 2021 release to the Moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. 

3D Printing in Space

Everyone has doubtless seen iconic footage of brave, grinning astronauts floating in zero-gravity on board space stations, whether in movies or real life. But the same conditions that allowed for Homer Simpson’s iconic potato chip-eating montage make 3D printing in space tricky.

Space 3D printer manufacturer Made In Space are helping make things in space, sending their 3D printer to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2014. This zero-gravity FDM 3D printer, called the AMF (Additive Manufacturing Facility) printed parts while orbiting Earth.

It has a 6 x 6 x 6 inch print volume, and is able to 3D print ABS, ULTEM 9085, and HDPE. It 3D printed parts including a wrench, an antenna part, and a part to connect free-flying robots, which were then compared with identical components 3D printed on Earth.

After tests, it was found these space 3D printed tools and objects worked fine, and microgravity did not prevent useful 3D printed things from being created. Space 3D printing was good to go.

Not having the tools on board was no longer a problem. The wrench 3D print was remotely sent to Made in Space’s 3D printer on the ISS from Earth, 250 miles away. In the event of an unforeseen issue, simply find out what tools or objects you need to fix the problem, have them designed on Earth and beamed to you, and perform the fix.

Tethers Unlimited went one further in February 2019, shipping a ReFabricator to the ISS which allows astronauts to recycle the waste materials that accumulate while in space. Printing with ULTEM 9085, a high-performance polymer similar to PEEK, it can also recycle these parts back into feedstock for re-use.

“Astronauts could use this technology to manufacture and recycle food-safe utensils and turn what is now inconvenient waste into feedstock to help build the next generation of space systems.”

— Rob Hoyt, CEO, Tethers Unlimited

And it doesn’t stop there: NASA have also been exploring how to 3D print food in space. One notable investment was backing food 3D printing company BeeHex with $1m to create a 3D printed pizza in space. This isn’t just a gimmick but perhaps integral to longer — perhaps even generational — space travel.

3D printable food ingredients such as for pizzas can be stored in special cartridges that exponentially slow spoiling. As a result, these ingredients could remain edible for decades, feeding astronauts on their voyage into the outer realms of space.

Conclusion and other projects

The spacemen have said it themselves: 3D printing “represents an important aspect of NASA’s low-earth orbit commercialization initiatives.” 

3D printing augments every facet of space exploration, from building better rockets, to building safe interplanetary habitats, to sustaining us in space. Even the Starman space suit helmets were 3D printed.

3D printing is already crucial to producing and launching more affordable satellites, and companies like Relativity Space have made additive manufacturing central to their mission to autonomously create affordable rockets for launching smaller cargoes into orbit.

More 3D printing will take place in space once space travel becomes more frequent. No other manufacturing method or technology offers the same ability to print on-demand and on-location, and at those complexities. When NASA talks of “low-earth orbit commercialization initiatives,” it is likely they mean asteroid mining, with trillions of dollars worth of metals waiting to be harvested to replace our cannibalistic expedition into Earth’s caverns in search of non-renewables that take us further and further from our planet’s natural balance.

Niche opportunities exist, ironically, for space manufacturing of parts to be shipped to and used on Earth, rather than the other way around. In 2020, Made In Space tested a Ceramics Manufacturing Module (CMM) using SLA-based ceramics. This could be used to repair heat shields and other parts.

Under zero-gravity less intense stresses are imposed upon any parts being 3D printed, and any remaining stresses are more uniformly distributed around the part. Therefore, stronger and lighter parts can be produced in space than can be made on Earth. This could open a future market for extremely high-performance, next-gen ceramic turbine blades manufactured on Earth-orbiting additive manufacturing mini-factories and flown back to Earth to be sold and used.

In a similar vein, some types of 3D bioprinting are not possible on Earth, but are perhaps possible in space. Perhaps in the not-so-distant future, organs will be 3D printed in space, shipped back to Earth, and transplanted into patients to bring renewed intergalactic vitality. TechShot’s BioFabrication Facility (BFF) recently 3D printed part of a human meniscus in space.

While no one can predict what the future of the human race will hold over the next century — despite Elon Musk’s optimistic predictions of million-strong Martian population — following from a half-century of lacklustre and post-Cold War lethargic space development, the future of space travel looks very exciting indeed, buoyed by its trusty sidekick, 3D printing.

Other articles you mat be interested in:

• 3D printing in aerospace
• 3D printed wind turbines

Seeing Dr Khoshnevis’ achievements on paper, you could be forgiven for deducing that this was a glittering professional and academic career without any serious antagonist. Holding over 100 patents (the most of anyone in the field), winning two NASA International Grand Prizes in 3D printing in 2014 and 2016, and having invented a metallic 3D printing technique licensed to American giant HP, you might think this was just the work of a steady genius; a comfortable academic chipping away at the marble block of global innovation.

Peer behind the curtain, however, and the story of the father of construction 3D printing — and his company, Contour Crafting — is far more tumultuous.

We had the opportunity to speak with Behrokh Khoshnevis about the early beginnings of his vision, the difficulties with its development and navigating the political world of university research funding, moving into space for interplanetary 3D printing with local in situ materials, and finally, bringing the technology and construction 3D printers to market.

• If you enjoyed this interview, you can read more in our feature story covering 3D printing in construction.

Note: the interview transcription has been edited slightly to improve readability. No changes have been made to the verbiage.

“In 1994 I started thinking about large-scale fabrication with 3D printing. I wasn’t happy with the speed of fabrication of the early 3D printers, and still they haven’t changed much as far as speed is concerned. I knew there was no other way to increase the speed of 3D printing than increase the layer height, but if you increase layer height then surface quality will suffer.

“So then I came up with the idea that I call Contour Crafting, in 1994. My first patent on it was issued in 1996, a couple years after.

“I started with polymers. The concept of Contour Crafting was pretty simple in reality. Back then, FDM was already there, Scott Crump had come up with that. But that was for plastic filaments. The challenge of extruding composites was different.

“The second problem was I wanted to print with very thick layers, and I wanted to maintain very smooth surfaces. So the amount of innovation I put in there was significant enough to really call it another process altogether [to FDM].

“I was originally investigating methods of building big sand molds for propellors of ships and submarines, and large aerospace tooling.

However, realizing the potential of the technology to create shelters for populations decimated by natural disasters, he focused his efforts on housebuilding.

“When you’re working in a university you have to bring your own research money, they will go so far in giving you seed money, but you cannot always depend on that. And especially for this kind of research I needed a big laboratory, but getting the resources to justify having a big lab in a university campus that is nearly in the heart of the city, very near to downtown Los Angeles… land is extremely expensive.

“There is always competition among faculty for space, so it has been a difficult path. It’s really troublesome when you find a spot and you start building something and a few months later they [the university] ask you to move to another location. I switched three times.

“Anyone who brought more to pay for the overhead of the university, they had the priority, and that’s understandable.”

Dr Khoshnevis

“Then you have to work with transitional students and the kinds of research at the earliest stage was pretty cumbersome, mixing concrete, it’s not a very pleasant research activity to involve graduate students, and just cleaning the whole thing was a big mess.

“Every day after experiments, lots of the time concrete would cure inside devices we had spent so much time building, so we had to throw everything away.

“It was a different kind of research, not like a desktop machine like I worked with in regular small scale 3D printing, it is definitely not the job of one or two people to do the experiments and everything even if you have the machine there already, and we had to build the machine from scratch! But it was surely a journey with a lot of adventures in it.

“We [managed to first accurately extrude concrete] around 2003. And in 2004 my work became very famous, in the New York Times… and that’s when the world learned about [Contour Crafting], and it inspired a lot of others to go after it.

“So I had to also chase the money. In 2008, 2009, real estate went down… and with it went construction, and the support I was getting from industry disappeared. So that’s when I started thinking about space.”

Without funding or support, a project of such magnitude could not maintain itself. 

Yet, fully believing his idea of construction 3D printing could change the world, Dr Khoshnevis expanded his vision beyond our planet.

The idea was deceptively simple: if we could print concrete on a 3D printer on Earth, an adapted version could be made that could print with locally-sourced lunar regolith to create Moon (or Mars) bases for permanent settlements in the near future. 

It costs an eye-watering $10,000 to send 1lb into space, so shipping the materials to build shelters for astronauts won’t work. Sending a construction 3D printer to print harvested lunar materials, however, could save billions.

Khoshnevis’ Contour Crafting methods were tested, simulating microgravity environments and using materials that mimicked the properties and difficulties of genuine lunar soil. 

The 2014 NASA Grand Prize victory followed, receiving $20,000 to further the idea.

As of now however, Khoshnevis does not currently work or focus on the space applications of construction 3D printing.

“Because of my preoccupation with the company I have halted my activities for space. But I keep myself informed about it and we desire to get into space applications in the near future.

“We demonstrated at least two technologies that are viable. Technologies for building vertical structures such as hangars, shade walls, radiation protection walls, blast protection walls, and horizontal structures most particularly the landing pads, roads, we demonstrated the feasibility of those entirely to be made with in situ material.

“We actually built… and demonstrated it, that’s why we got Grand Prizes from NASA. My hope and expectation is that those technologies will eventually be used for planetary missions.”

No longer focusing on NASA and space, it was back to housebuilding and construction on Earth. The housing market, and confidence in it, had recovered. It was time to un-pivot.

And others saw the potential. Doka Ventures, a wing of Austrian construction company Umdasch Group, bought into the vision, taking a 30% share in the newly formed Contour Crafting company.

“In 2017 I received investment from a reputable European multinational construction company [Doka Ventures]. We started this company and our mission became looking closely at the real implementation issues and solving the remaining problems, difficult problems that once solved would make the technology maybe easier to use and more appealing to use.

“I don’t think that competing with conventional construction is a trivial change, it’s a major challenge. There’s a lot of hype about 3D printing, especially in construction.

“Since my first demonstration many years have passed, and yet we see that the technology has not taken over the world, right? It’s not a mainstream construction approach — one here, one there.”

Referencing other companies’ recent housebuilding demonstrations, he says:

“There’s not much information specifically about what the cost of building that construction was, and how long it took, what was involved in setting up the system on site, and what kind of talents and number of people were engaged in that construction activity, what were the logistics problems associated with it — we don’t hear much of those. So, unless there is an accurate assessment of any technology, there will not be necessarily a justification for the market to absorb it.

“So those have been the types of concerns I have had since when I started the company.

“3D printers…can only build the shell of the building. This is only maybe like 15-25% of the entire building. So all this hype really about 3D printing really solving the building construction problem really is not warranted. There is a lot more that should go into the building. My vision, as is reflected in my early patents, was to combine 3D printing with a lot of other robotics operations in order to build a more complete building.

“The technologies I developed 15, 16 years ago, are still the most advanced among large-scale 3D printing methods I see around the world.”

And though regulatory issues until very recently have plagued the development of 3D construction printing in the USA, Contour Crafting has carved an effective niche selling a custom-made, portable 3D printer to the government.

“We have released our new product, the first units of the product has gone to the government, they contracted us to build this machine.

“It’s a highly transportable machine, like a transformer, can quickly set it up on site. So, these are just different than straightforward gantry machines, so those are the areas in which we have worked. We have innovations in material processing, delivery and all that.”

The US Department of Defense funded the development of this custom 3D printer in July 2018, the CrafTrans. The CrafTrans is a sub-1,000kg rapid prototyper that fits snugly onto a truck and can be quickly unloaded and deployed in both military and civilian situations. It was delivered in December 2020.

So, despite rocky beginnings, being moved from laboratory to laboratory to accommodate perceived more fruitful research projects, and a financial and housing crisis just as the technology was getting off the ground, Khoshnevis showed that with the perseverance and creativity to pivot and the grit to keep looking for opportunities, you can win in the end.

“The reality is that I never gave up, I never gave up on it. Although I had other very intriguing projects, this was the most difficult one — the most cumbersome one — I never lost hope in it, and I still haven’t lost hope.

“I am doing as much I can to advance the technology, and what is important to me is really the journey. The destination is not in our control always, we just carry it so far as long as we can while we are around, and that is my philosophy in life.

“The important thing is to just move, when you have an idea keep on moving, and then you run in to opportunities, that movement teaches you a lot of stuff, rather than just sitting back and contemplating. That’s being a dream-weaver, not a creator. A creator always moves and makes things happen.”

And after two decades of being hardworking creator, the sands are finally shifting in favor of experienced Dr Khoshnevis. After decades of regulatory issues hounding development, in June 2019 a new acceptance criteria document was unanimously approved permitting automated construction. We could soon see metal concrete-extruding behemoths printing our future houses on our streets.

• We also have a ranking of the most exciting 3D printed house builds.

3D printing in construction is sometimes referred to as 3DCP, or LSAM (large scale additive manufacturing), using 3D printing to build all kinds of structures, like houses and bridges.

Rather than plastics on standard FDM 3D printers, these huge construction 3D printers print layers of concrete on massive robotic arms. They use FDM-style techniques, depositing concrete layers (no bricks) to create the entire frame of a house.

They can only build house walls and chassis structures however, leaving the house as a skeleton with rectangle holes to install windows, and plumbing and other systems need to be installed afterwards. However, for building house skeletons, construction 3D printing offers unmatched autonomy and speed.

How does the construction 3D printing process work?

3D model design

Before you build a house traditionally, you need to get planning permission, draw up plans, get them approved, and agree on the house’s layout.

With 3D printing, you’ll need a 3D CAD model, or STL file. This is all your construction 3D printer needs to print the entire house or other structure.

• We also have a ranking of the best architecture software.

Concrete 3D printer set up

Construction 3D printers print concrete and other mixes to build houses. These need to be mixed and prepped, and the huge house printers set up. Some can take an hour to set up, with huge robotic arms and wide frames to support their weight.

Construction printing

Once ready, the concrete 3D printer deposits material along the dimensions specified from the STL house file. Once one layer is finished, the printer rises up one layer, and repeats the process, creating taller and taller structures until the house is finished.

History of 3D printing in construction

Beginnings: theoretical

Though mainstream progression has been fairly new, construction 3D printing has been theorized and developed for around 25 years. Joseph Pegna’s 1997 paper — “Exploratory Investigation of Solid Freeform Construction” — is considered the first construction 3D printing technique.

“A thin layer of sand is deposited, followed by the deposition of a patterned layer of cement. Steam is then applied to the layer to obtain rapid curing.”

Pegna, 1997

Around the same time, Behrohk Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute patented his ceramic extrusion technology in 1995. This technology developed into Contour Crafting, a technique using huge cranes to deposit large amounts of cement.

Originally planned as a way to make large molds, a series of natural disasters convinced Khoshnevis that his technology could effectively produce new houses in areas destroyed by earthquakes and other disasters.

Whereas Contour Crafting focuses on extrusion-based concrete 3D printing similar to FDM, D-Shape focuses instead on binder jetting-based housebuilding. The technology binds sand with a seawater and magnesium-based binder, creating stone-like structures. Invented by Enrico Dini and first patented in 2006, the company aim to 3D print entire buildings, having already printed the tallest 3D printed sculpture in 2009, the Radiolaria.

D-Shape’s construction 3D printer sits in a huge 6x6m aluminium frame, with 300 nozzles in the print head, each jetting cement. D-Shape’s binder jetting techniques are the major alternative to Contour Crafting’s extrusion-based house 3D printing proposals.

In 2008, experimentation and research on construction 3D printing and concrete 3D printing started at Loughborough University in the UK. Headed by Richard Buswell and his colleagues, the research moved from a gantry system to a robotic arm.

Whereas the gantry arm system previously used XYZ Cartesian coordinates to direct the print nozzle, the robotic arm offers additional degrees of freedom and accuracy. Additionally, some robotic arms can be programmed simultaneously with other construction 3D printing arms, speeding up the construction process. In 2014 the technology was licensed to Skanska, the world’s fifth largest construction company.

2013: Construction 3D printing becomes feasible

In 2013, NASA conducted a study testing Contour Crafting’s construction 3D printing technologies to build lunar structures. The study tested whether they could print with materials found on lunar surfaces, minimizing the need to fly materials from Earth and potentially saving billions of dollars. We have a full section on construction 3D printing in space further on in this article.

DUS Architects, a Dutch architecture firm, first released plans for a 3D printed building — the 3D Canal House — in 2013. The Amsterdam-based site was opened to the public on March 1st 2014.

In 2014, Winsun, a Chinese construction company, claimed to have 3D printed ten houses in one day. This is however a controversial area of construction 3D printing, with Contour Crafting founder Behrohk Khoshnevis claiming these efforts are faked, and that they have stolen his technology and infringed on his patents.

He and Dr Jing Zhang (founder of Sprintray), in an interview allege that Winsun CEO’s claims of being in the construction 3D printing industry over a decade are untrue, that Mr Ma, Winsun’s CEO, barely understood what 3D printing was when they met, and that they stole his technology, print elements of houses off-site, transport them to the locations, assemble them, and then claim to 3D print houses.

Winsun refute these claims, questioning the legitimacy of patent infringement claims when they have built structures while Contour Crafting have not. They claim nobody has seen their gargantuan construction 3D printer for privacy and intellectual property reasons, and that Dr Khoshnevis was prevented from ever viewing the technology when they were in previous discussions because of company laws.

Winsun have since 3D printed concrete bus shelters, are helping Elon Musk with the Hyperloop project, and claim to have sold more than 100 3D printed houses. From a paper detailing construction 3D printing’s history and development, Winsun appear to print off-site, saying: “[Winsun] print a mix with added waste material, off-site, in the factory, for transportation.”

The Army have also taken an interest in construction 3D printing. Tests have been carried out in 3D printing temporary barracks, bunkers, and fighting positions.

The first 3D printed bridge was completed in December 2016, in the Castilla-La Mancha Park in Alcobenda, Madrid, Spain. Constructed using Spanish conglomerate ACCIONA’s 3DBUILD technologies, the bridge spanned 12 meters, was 1.75 meters wide, and printed in micro-reinforced concrete.

Other recent exciting construction additive manufacturing projects include the printing of what is claimed to be the EU’s first 3D printed home, in Milan, Italy. The home, built out of a collaboration between Arup and CLS Architetti, was printed in 48 hours, comprising 35 modules. One of the major challenges for the project was developing a new type of fast-drying concrete that could dry before the next layer of concrete was 3D printed on top.

• More information on this build can be found in our ranking of the coolest 3D printed houses.

Arup used house 3D printer company CyBe Construction’s RC 3Dp printer. They are now further optimizing the process, developing recycled concrete mixes with natural fibers which are more sustainable, as well as bringing down costs and allowing materials to be sourced locally.

• We also have an article discussing the most innovative house 3D printer companies.

2017 onwards: Construction 3D printing goes viral

Russian 3D printer company Apis Cor shot to prominence by constructing an entire house in 24 hours back in 2017. The video went viral, exposing additive manufacturing houses to people who hadn’t even heard of 3D printing, and bringing Apis Cor to the forefront of 3D house printing. Apis Cor have since pitched to and collaborated with NASA, and broken the record for the world’s largest 3D printed house, a huge building in Dubai.

A year after Apis Cor’s victory, non-profit New Story and 3D housebuilding startup ICON collaborated to 3D print a house in Texas in March 2018. Compact and costing just a few thousand dollars, this proof of concept propelled ICON to $44m investment to bring their technology to fruition, and have since built a number of affordable 3D printed houses in Mexico.

Non-profit New Story focus on using building 3D printed homes for people in the developing area, building over 2,200 homes for 11,000 people across countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, and Haiti.

Further innovating, in August 2020 Belgian construction 3D printing company Kamp C printed the first ever multi-storey house, a 90-square meter, two-storey house all printed on-site in one part. Though this building took just under three weeks to construct, Kamp C believe that this can be brought down to two days.

“Our aim was to print the floor area, height, and shape of an average contemporary home, in the form of a model home with multipurpose options. This is a principle of circular building. The building can be used as a house, a meeting space, an office, or an exhibition space.”

Piet Wielemans, architect at Kamp C

How construction 3D printing can change the world

• Faster — entire house chassis can be built in under a day, leaving just the furnishings and electrical, plumbing and other systems to be finished.
• Cheaper — doesn’t require skilled labor, which also has uses where there may be labor shortages e.g. in developing world. Workers are still required to set up and monitor the printer however, so it doesn’t eliminate human labor. Only having to rent a construction 3D printer for a few days, rather than pay wages for months, significantly reduces costs.
• More precise and no human error — makes for more structurally sound builds, removing the possibility of a dangerous build due to a ‘cowboy builder’.
• Better for the environment — around 32% of all landfill comes from the construction industry, but additive manufacturing famously wastes almost nothing, making housebuilding much eco-friendlier. Moreover, companies are researching more environmentally friendly 3D printable concrete materials, such as more energy efficient, biodegradable, and better insulating concrete mixes.
• Creates homes for homeless & in developing world — ideal for those who have had their houses destroyed in natural disasters. 3D construction printing can also build on difficult geographies and curve round tight spaces. A good example is a home constructed in Nantes, France, which curved around a tree, making more efficient use of the space and making housebuilding more versatile. In the developing world where there may not be enough skilled builders to create houses, construction 3D printers can overcome this and create basic structures quickly.
• Safer — 400,000 US workers are seriously injured or worse every year. With construction 3D printing, risks are much reduced as workers are not physically building the structure.

Construction 3D printing in space

Construction 3D printing was first proposed for building permanent human settlements on Mars and the Moon back in 2013. As sending anything into space is so expensive, the ability to 3D print structures for astronauts to live in using locally sourced lunar materials would save billions — perhaps even trillions.

Therefore, Contour Crafting was tested back in 2013 with lunar-mimicking materials. If successful, NASA’s plan would be to use 90% locally sourced lunar materials to build settlements, with only the remaining 10% needing to be shipped over in rockets, such as the inflatable enclosed areas astronauts would live in.

D-Shape’s binder jetting construction 3D printers were also tested in a zero-gravity environment to ascertain whether the printer could create effective living structures with local lunar material.

NASA themselves hosted the NASA Centennial Challenge, completed in 2019, tasking people to build 3D printed habitats for future deep space exploration. The challenge awarded $2m to various projects across three stages. 

One NASA-endorsed project, the aptly named architecture studio AI Space Factory’s Marsha Project design, was a tall yet thin four-astronaut house that can be made using local Martian materials, including basalt. Its thinness is more effective against the harsh Martain terrain, making it more appropriate for interplanetary habitats, and work is now being done to create a scaled down prototype.

The future of 3D printing in construction

Construction 3D printers are only getting more powerful, fast, reliable and versatile over time, with new advances changing the landscape every year. New innovations include COBOD’s new BOD2 second generation construction 3D printer, able to print 18 meters per minute, three times faster than the original BOD.

Swiss chemical multinational Sika claim to have mastered the required steps to 3D print concrete on industrial scales using their industrial robot arms. This is aided by Sika’s material developments, a range of mortar-mixed additives that dry within seconds — so additional layers can be printed on top with no ill effects.

According to Sika CTO Frank Höfflin, “digitisation is changing every aspect of construction and the entire life cycle of a building, from the design process and automated construction all the way to maintenance.”

However, though able to build house silhouettes quickly and effectively, the technology has not managed to achieve anything like a luxury villa, mansion, or hotel design. Currently relegated to basic huts, bungalows and basic house structures, we will see how construction and concrete 3D printing advances in the future, and whether it can solve the world’s growing housing crisis.

Though still in need of refining and optimizing, these house 3D printer companies have made huge progress in the last few years, going from building the first basic concrete walls to creating entire offices, government buildings and beautifully designed homes.

• To view some of these projects and the advantages of 3D printing homes, read our ranking of the most stunning 3D printed houses.
• We also have a ranking of the best large format 3D printers.

We therefore researched some of the most innovative and exciting house 3D printer companies, listing their achievements and showcasing their innovative construction 3D printers that can extrude tons of concrete to create houses in mere hours.

1 – Apis Cor

• Country based: Russia
• Best known for: 3D printing an entire house in 1 day!

Russian company Apis Cor famously 3D printed an entire house in just a single day back in December 2016, going viral and commanding worldwide attention for this extraordinary feat. Since then, Apis have won NASA prizes for potential space 3D printing techniques for creating structures on Mars.

Then in 2019, Apis Cor made headlines again when they built the largest 3D printed house in the world, a huge building in Dubai to be used for administrative purposes. The building took 17 days to print and encompasses 640m². Having built houses in Russia’s tough winter climate as well as hot Dubai, Apis Cor have proven they can create durable 3D printed houses anywhere.

Their house 3D printers are huge goliath structures, with a 4.5-meter-long polar 3D printer specifically built for concrete extrusion. It can be set up in 30 minutes, depositing concrete layer-by-layer to create a full house structure. These house 3D printers only create the structure however — the equivalent of a car chassis — that skilled workers can then finish by adding plumbing and electrical systems.

2 – CyBe Construction

• Country based: Holland
• Best known for: Milan Design Week 3D Printed House

CyBe are another hugely innovative company in the 3D printed house sector. Responsible for the house showcased during Milan Design Week, as well as 3D printed bridges in the Netherlands and concrete buildings built in Saudi Arabia, CyBe Construction are making huge progress in building habitable houses using their concrete 3D printers.

The Dutch house 3D printer company have two construction 3D printer models, the CyBe RC 3Dp, and CyBe R 3Dp, able to print structures quickly at up to 200mm/s. They also use patented materials based on concrete mix, and claim they can fully construct houses for under $100,000.

These construction 3D printers are unique in that their tank-like tracks allow them to move around building sites and positioning themselves to deposit concrete. Like Apis Cor, CyBe house 3D printers are active in Dubai, having built buildings that are to be used for drone R&D, as well as in India and Japan.

3 – WinSun

• Country based: China
• Best known for: 3D printing 10 houses in a day in 2014

WinSun is a Chinese company which made headlines back in 2014 by building ten 3D printed houses — small concrete buildings that cost $4,800 each — in just one day. Since then WinSun have continued to innovate, 3D printing an eco-friendly bus stop in 2017, and collaborating with Elon Musk to help build the first Hyperloop tunnels.

WinSun claim to have sold more than 100 3D printed homes, using their FDM-style construction 3D printers that extrude cement and sand materials to build walls. More recently, WinSun also worked in Dubai Future Foundation to 3D print the “office of the future”, a picturesque concrete office that would look at home in Blade Runner or similar sci-fi future world.

4 – ICON

• Country based: USA
• Best known for: Austin, Texas 3D printed house

ICON are not just a 3D printing company, but also focuses on robotics and traditional construction projects. Based in the USA, ICON are backed by Paul Graham’s legendary tech incubator and investment wing Y Combinator, and have ambitious goals to build exciting buildings all over the world with their powerful Vulcan II house 3D printer.

ICON collaborated with New Story to build a simple yet smart home in Austin, Texas, costing $4,000 to build. Since then, ICON has moved on to creating homes in Mexico, and in 2020 secured $35M to commercialize 3D printed home building technologies, taking their total investment to $44M.

Vulcan II house 3D printer

ICON’s Vulcan II house 3D printer is a gigantic concrete-extruding goliath capable of building up to 2,000 square feet homes. Among the first commercially available construction 3D printers, the Vulcan II is specifically designed to build resilient single-story homes up to 8.5 feet tall and 28 feet wide.

ICON have also pioneered research into their concrete-based material to prevent it creating imperfect layers or hardening too quickly. The actual material mix itself can be altered based on needs and uses, making ICON’s offering versatile and changeable based on the local environment.

5 – Be More 3D

• Country based: Spain
• Most known for: 3D printing a house in 12 hours

Spanish house 3D printer company Be More 3D was founded by four young entrepreneurs studying a variety of architecture-related disciplines at the Polytechnic University of Valencia.

Since then, they’ve built a sleek 24m² house in Valencia, as well as a 32m² house they 3D printed in 12 hours for the Morroco-based Solar Decathlon Africa event in 2019 – winning the prize for most innovative start-up.

They sell their very own concrete construction 3D printer, the BEM Pro 2, which can operate even in hot and harsh climates, making it great for 3D printing houses near the equator.

6 – WASP

• Best known for: Gaia sustainable house
• Country based: Italy

WASP are an Italian 3D printer manufacturer who sell a variety of desktop delta 3D printers as well as clay 3D printers for the ceramic market. These include their Delta Pro range, claimed to be the fastest 3D printers in the world.

With far larger ambitions however, WASP also have two construction 3D printers, the BigDelta and Crane WASP house 3D printers. The BigDelta is claimed to be the world’s largest 3D printer, at 12 meters tall and 7 meters wide.

WASP’s vision is to solve the growing housing crisis by building cheaper homes in the developing world. Currently working with concrete, WASP aim to be able to extrude straw and earth so that their house 3D printers can construct liveable homes using naturally sourced and local materials.

Recently, WASP built the Gaia eco-sustainable house, proving the concept and showing a sleek yet basic small house can be 3D printed with ease.