tech

3D printing a house in less than 24 hours — Japanese company meets its goal

12 Comments
By SoraNews24

Last year Japan’s Serendix Partners caught our eye with its concept for spherical, 3D-printed houses. Not only do they have a stylish, futuristic appeal, Serendix wants them to be low-priced enough to make the cost of buying their 3D-printed houses comparable to that of a budget-friendly new car.

In order to do that, Serendix needs to be able to make its houses in a very short amount of time, and they’ve recently shown it’s possible by achieving their goal of building a 3D-printed house in less than 24 hours.

▼ The under-24-hour house

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What construction there was took place at the factory of Hyakunen Jutaku, a residential architecture and construction company in the city of Komaki, Aichi Prefecture. With the help of its domestic and overseas partners, Serendix was able to print a 20-metric ton reinforced concrete frame for the house, with assembly of the pieces taking just three hours. From start to finish, it took 23 hours and 12 minutes to build the house, which Serendix says meets Japanese earthquake and European insulation standards.

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It’s worth noting that Serendix doesn’t show, or mention, anything about how the interior of the house it put together in under 24 hours was equipped, but it’s an impressive accomplishment all the same. The company also says that a considerable amount of the total construction time was spent applying paint to the house’s exterior, and that advancements and/or increased automation for that step, as well as fine-tuning of the entire process, could make the total production time even shorter.

Serendix is calling the 3D-printed house Sphere, and hopes to offer the 10-square meter structures at a price of three million yen. Initial sales are planned to be through Serendix’s consortium partners for use as camping cabins, vacation homes, and disaster relocation shelters.

Source, images: Press release

Read more stories from SoraNews24.

-- Mujirushi’s Japanese micro-houses are finally on sale to the general public!

-- Is this the tiniest teleworking space in Japan?

-- Japanese interior micro-houses and study spaces: Great for work-at-home professionals, kids too

© SoraNews24

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

12 Comments
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The concept is great - but they still sound too expensive. You'd need 5 or 6 of them at least in a modular grouping to be useful for a family.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

With the methods used in the US the "printing" occurs on site. Nothing is pre-fabricated. The builder starts with a conventional concrete slab. Once the pour commences it continues until the house is complete.

My concern is that the techniques I read about do not include any steel or other kind of reinforcement incorporated into the concrete. Absent reinforcing steel or something else I would be concerned about the performance of such a structure in an earthquake.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

The tech is fine. However, I don't understand why anyone would want a "house", it's more like a cabin, in that shape. 3D concrete printing can do rounded right angles. Making it ball-shaped creates all kinds of problems. Doors, windows, fittings, furniture etc. all have to be custom, which makes things way more expensive.

That's also an absolutely massive crane that's lifting it, due to the weight of the concrete. A standard prefab, called a "container house" or "super house" in Japanese, the type you see on building sites, can be lifted and delivered with the tiny cranes you get on UNIC flatbed trucks. A 6 mat (10 sq m) one of them goes for about a third of the price of this.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

That place would look great on the moon. On planet earth, however it's just a piece of nonsense.

Raise your hand if you want to live in that.

(No hands raised.)

0 ( +0 / -0 )

LamillyMar. 12 12:51 pm JST

This is very interesting, in the USA people are living in 3D-printed houses, they sing its praises

No, they are living in trailer parks and high on fentanyl

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

My concern is that the techniques I read about do not include any steel or other kind of reinforcement incorporated into the concrete. Absent reinforcing steel or something else I would be concerned about the performance of such a structure in an earthquake.

The article says it confirms to earthquake regs.

New fibre reinforced concrete is stronger than steel reinforced concrete. The fiber is in the mix. No need for rebar.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

A 20 ton igloo in 24 hours .

10 meters big and only 3 million yen.

No thanks !

-3 ( +5 / -8 )

This is very interesting. I’m thinking of buying real estate on the moon.

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

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