WinSun Gets Serious: Recycling Concrete to 3D Print Houses on Demand
When most people think of 3D printing, they tend to think of small items. Plastic figures, handheld tools, or household items like cups, plates, etc. But we’ve reached a level of technology where it’s possible for us to 3D print items that would once have been considered impossible. Things that we considered far too big, and far too involved, to ever be made by such a delicate process.
Like houses, for example.
As 3D Print points out, a Chinese company has been making houses using 3D printing technology since 2014. And it seems with every passing year they take on bigger, and more beautiful, challenges.
WinSun Decoration is Leading The Pack in 3D Printed Homes
Building houses is expensive, and it regularly costs homeowners hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a custom home made to their specifications. Thanks to 3D printing, however, it’s possible for WinSun to make 10 houses a day (or more), at a cost of just over $5,000 per house. Not only is that cost quite small compared to what we’re used to seeing for new home construction (even when we’re talking about modular home design), but the company uses a material made from recycled concrete. The result is that, in addition to being far cheaper, these houses are also a green technology that takes an extremely common waste material, and turns it into a brand-new product.
And single-dwelling homes aren’t the only thing WinSun is producing. As their technology and techniques have evolved, the company has produced a six-story apartment building, as well as a picturesque mansion. Neither structure looks like the sort of thing that would be designed by a 3D printer… which is precisely what makes WinSun’s results so impressive. And since this technology is getting noticed, it’s possible that other companies will take up the call to provide similar recycled residences.