Dive Brief:
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A New York architect plans to use a giant military 3-D printer to create an estate that will include a 2,400-square-foot house, a swimming pool, a Jacuzzi and a carport.
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CNN reported that architect Adam Kushner and 3-D building firm D-Shape will mix sand, dust and gravel with a binding agent containing magnesium and use the printer to produce a material with the consistency of marble, which they will use as building blocks.
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The project, when completed in late 2017, will be the first “printed” estate in the U.S. The Netherlands and China already have homes created from 3-D-printed materials. Although printing building materials is a fairly quick process, getting permission to borrow a military printer is not, CNN noted.
Dive Insight:
Kushner has motives beyond helping to transform U.S. homebuilding: “If we can build a simple pool house, I can print thousands of refugee housings,” he told CNN. “If I can build a pool, I can print underwater reefs to repair bridges, piers and infrastructures."
Although 3-D estates, for now, are for the wealthy, the architect said the technology, which could allow for faster building, could eventually be cheaper and of higher quality than traditional construction materials and practices.
"This will serve as a way of using our project to ... pave the way for more humanitarian purposes that we see as the highest and best use for our technology," Kushner said.
