In fact, more than 60 percent of Azure’s print material is made with a recycled plastic polymer that is often used in water bottles and food packaging—and which is often destined for landfill or incineration.
Customers can design and customize their structures, including colors, finishes and other details, through the 3D configurator on Azure’s website. Once the design is finalized, Azure then 3D prints the unit—a process that takes less than 24 hours. The components are assembled and shipped to the customer, and then installed on-site.
The construction sector generally relies on the same building techniques that have been in use for decades, which can often lead to delays, ballooning costs, and a whole lot of wasted materials. In contrast, Azure claims that its technology enables the company to prefabricate buildings 70 percent faster—and 20 to 30 percent cheaper—than conventional methods.
“The construction sector is the largest global consumer of raw materials, responsible for approximately 20 percent of the world’s total carbon emissions,” said Gene Eidelman, cofounder of Azure Printed Homes. “Our responsibility to our customers and to future generations is to use the most sustainable practices imaginable.”
Azure’s printing process.
The company recently announced the opening of a new 3D printing facility—a 15,000-square-foot factory that will house Azure’s custom-built 3D printer that will fabricate the company’s line of products.
Those products include an Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU), a structure that can range from 450 to 1,000 square meters. That’s big enough to serve as an extra room for an existing house, a guest house or an income unit. The starting price is $99,900.
The company also offers a smaller, 120-square-foot backyard studio, a free-standing structure that can function like a home office, gym, artist space or entertainment room. The base price for this unit is $23,900.
“When compared with conventional construction, we produce the entire structural skeleton, the exterior sheathing, the water control barrier, the exterior finish, the passageways for utilities, and the grounding for interior finishes, in a fraction of the time and cost,” said Ross Maguire, cofounder of Azure Printed Homes. “By revolutionizing a new age of home building with our sustainable, automated and exact production processes, we see a very, very exciting future ahead.”
It’s becoming increasingly clear that large-scale 3D printing technology, though still a young field, has the promise of radically changing the way the construction industry does business. The technology is also opening up possibilities to tackle broad social concerns such as affordable housing shortages and excess waste that is destined for landfill. Azure Printed Homes’ use of recycled plastics could help address both those issues.
Read more about how 3D printing is transforming the construction sector at Innovations in 3D-Printed Buildings.