This apartment building is being 3D printed in Europe — and rent won't be more than $530 a month for a 872-square-foot unit

Sat, 11/25/2023 - 08:26

a rendering of Peri 3D Construction's apartment building — Peri 3D Construction is now printing part of an affordable apartment building in Germany, as seen in a rendering.
Peri 3D Construction

Peri 3D Construction is 3D-printing part of a three-floor, six-unit affordable apartment building in Germany.
The max rent could range between $398 to $528 depending on the size of the unit.
The first residents could move into their 3D-printed home in October 2024.

German residents will soon have the opportunity to move into an affordable apartment building with a futuristic twist — 3D-printed walls.

Peri 3D Construction, a prolific player in this burgeoning construction-tech industry, has a resume filled with projects like a two-story printed home currently underway in Houston.

Now, it's taking its concrete mix and BOD2 3D printer to the former coal-mining city of Lünen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, to print a six-unit apartment building where rent could be capped at $528.

This project is on track to become Europe’s first publicly funded 3D-printed apartment building, according to the company.

people near a 3D printing extruding concrete — Construction 3D printers create a distinct layered appearance.
Peri 3D Construction

Peri 3D Construction is a subsidiary of scaffolding and formwork manufacturing giant Peri Group. These days, its construction-tech arm has a packed schedule: The company is also printing a soccer clubhouse and data center in Germany.

The three-floor, six-unit building will span about 7,007 square-feet.

rendering of Peri 3D Construction's apartment building — There will be two apartments on each of the building's three floors, as shown in a rendering.
Peri 3D Construction

The individual apartments could range from about 657 square feet to 872 square feet.

As a publicly funded building, rent must be capped at 6 euros per square meter, or about $6.50 per 10.8 square feet.

This means renters could pay a maximum of 366 to 486 euros, or about $398 to $528.

Peri expects to complete its printing work by the end of November.

Peri 3D Construction's apartment building being printed — The interior walls will be automatically smoothed to ease the plastering process, according to the company.
Peri 3D Construction

The team began construction in September and is predicting a total print time of less than 100 hours.

But that doesn’t mean the homes will be move-in ready next week: Only the walls of the first and second floor are being 3D-printed.

scaffolding around a 3d printed building — The bottom two floors will keep their exterior printed facade, according to Peri 3D Construction.
Peri 3D Construction

The top floor will be constructed using a "hybrid timber construction method," according to a release from COBOD, the maker of Peri's 3D printer.

Everything else, including the building's foundation, will be built traditionally, which is still common practice for the nascent 3D printing construction-tech.

The building could welcome its first residents in October 2024.

The North Rhine-Westphalia government is tapping into two investment pools to fund this project, which costs 1.9 million euros, or a little over $2 million.

a person with a laptop next to a 3d printer — Peri 3D Construction uses COBOD's popular BOD2 3D printer.
Peri 3D Construction

According to a spokesperson for Peri, the state's "innovations in construction" and "public funding for living space" programs will pitch in 1.7 million euros, almost $1.85 million.

The final 200,000 euros (about $217,580) will come from the project's manager, real estate company WBG Lünen.

Peri 3D Construction’s managing director, Fabian Meyer-Brötz, believes the tech can already be used across “modern construction sites, and especially for social housing projects.”

3D printed concrete walls — Fans of the construction-tech say it can reduce construction labor and waste.
Peri 3D Construction

In the face of a global crisis in affordable and safe housing, 3D-printing proponents believe the construction tech could build more natural disaster-resistant homes while decreasing the speed and cost of homebuilding.

But because this tech is still relatively new, COBOD cofounder Philip Lund-Nielsen says the price of using printers is currently "on par or a bit more expensive" than conventional construction methods.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Real Estate, finance, real-estate, 3d-printer, 3d-printed-home, peri, cobod, business-visual-features, Innovation-Design, affordable-housing

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This apartment building is being 3D printed in Europe — and rent won't be more …