According to a report on Xinhua, the official press agency of the PRC, “giant” 3D printers have been used to print several reasonably large-sized buildings. They say a “standalone villa” and a “six story full-sized building” have recently been printed. Further, they say the extrusion material was derived from “construction wastes”.
Is this true? We were skeptical upon seeing the lead image above, particularly when the headline read “six story building”. The image (shown at top) doesn’t exactly look like a six story building. However, digging a bit further we found additional images which appear to show a truly 3D printed multi-story building.
The extrusion layers are extremely rough, but that’s exactly what you’d expect when printing such a large object. Fine layers for detail are irrelevant as merely the structural walls were printed. Coverings will no doubt be applied to the interior walls to finish them off.
The material appears to be a concrete-like mix, which indeed could be made from “construction wastes”, at least partially.
Here we see an interior view of a stairway. Evidently the steps have been added after printing, but the majority of the structure looks like it was 3D printed. Note the very coarse layers. Roof layers may also have been added after printing.
Six stories? Well, here’s an image of four stories. If you can print four, you likely can do six, so we’ll call this one probable. Again, notice the coarse, yet highly uniform layers.
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