Canada’s First 3D-Printed Homes an Exciting Start for the New Tech
Being able to build a house at the push of a button may seem like a far-fetched, futuristic idea, but with the launch of Canada’s first-ever 3D printed homes on its way, that reality may be closer than you think.
As part of a new project from Habitat for Humanity, a group of four 500-sq.-ft homes are going up in Leamington, Ontario with wall structures that have been entirely 3D printed. To build the houses, located less than an hour outside of Windsor, Habitat contracted leading Canadian 3D construction printing firm nidus3D. Over the course of several days, the company’s gantry-style printer methodically printed layer after layer of concrete walls, replacing what would traditionally be a manually-built wooden frame. The homes are currently being finished up and are expected to launch some time this summer
Although it’s just the frames that were printed for the Habitat project, nidus3D President and Founder Ian Arthur explained that this is just the beginning for 3D printed homes. In fact, they already have the capability to also lay the pads that homes are built on top of, and to do it much faster than it would take to do manually.
“We anticipate being able to touch on a much larger scope in the future,” Arthur said. “The coolest part about this is it’s just the beginning. It’s the initiation of a process change that is going to allow people to innovate entire sections of the build process that the printing so far hasn’t touched but absolutely will in the future.”
Currently steps like painting, plastering, building roofs, or placing ties between veneers are all done manually, but Arthur says could potentially be done by a robotic arm in the future.
When operating at full capacity, the concrete printer can produce half a storey to a full storey a day, depending on the complexity and scale of the printing job. Even taking into account time on either end to set up and take down the printer, 3D printing methods roughly halve the time it would take to construct the same home manually, Arthur notes.
