PERI is 3D printing a three-storey apartment building in Germany

Since Danish construction company COBOD spun out of 3D Printhuset in 2018, it has made steady advances in pushing construction AM towards the mainstream. In the past year alone, its gantry AM technology has been used for a handful of large-scale projects, including building over three demo houses at the the International Bautec construction exhibition and printing a residential building in Beckum, Germany. Most recently, COBOD’s technology is being used to construct a three-floor apartment building.

To span 380 meters square, the 3D printed apartment block is being built in Wallenhausen, Germany in cooperation with concrete specialist PERI, which invested in COBOD in 2018. COBOD’s BOD2 3D printer has been deployed to print the walls of the house on-site. When the project is complete, the commercial apartment building will consist of five units that will be rented out.

“We are incredibly pleased, that we are beginning to see the fruits of the many 3D construction printers we have sold,” commented Henrik Lund-Nielsen, Founder and General Manager of COBOD. “The actual building projects have been delayed by the coronavirus, but now they start to be revealed. This new German project is really a great milestone as the commercial nature of the building proves the competitiveness of the 3D construction printing technology for three floors buildings and apartment buildings. This, again, opens entirely new markets for our printers.”

PERI, which will be leading the printing of the three-flour building, sees a bright future for AM in the construction sector. Since investing in COBOD, the company has been involved in many projects, not only leveraging the BOD2 to build various structures but also selling the printer to clients, including Röser GmbH.

“We are very confident that 3D construction printing will become increasingly important in certain market segments over the coming years and has considerable potential,” said Thomas Imbacher, Innovation and Marketing Director at PERI GmbH. “By printing the first apartment building on-site, we are demonstrating that this new technology can also be used to print large scale dwellings units. In terms of 3D construction printing, we are opening up additional areas of application on an entirely new level.”

The apartment building’s walls are now being printed using a BOD2 system with a 12.5 x 20 x 7.5 meter configuration. The printer is capable of reaching speeds of up to 100 cm/second, the equivalent of printing or casting 10 tons of concrete per hour. In the video below, you can see the progress that has been made on the layer-by-layer construction. When the project is complete, the three-floor block will be owned by Michael Rupp Bauunternehmung GmbH, a local, family-owned construction firm.

Sebastian Rupp, future managing director at Michael Rupp Bauunternehmung, concluded: “We believe that this new technology has enormous potential for the future, and we want to help shape that future. Despite the traditional nature of our craft, we are also innovative and do not shy away from new challenges – quite the opposite in fact.”

For the latest of construction AM, check this space at the end of the month for 3dpbm’s upcoming eBook.