If we look at potentially emerging 3D printing businesses, then architecture has not been fully explored.Yes, there is a lot of house 3D printing going on worldwide.From deployable 3D printers and affordable homes to expo spaces and Starbucks, projects are being developed globally.
Concrete companies, developers, local councils, militaries, and large construction firms are all experimenting with the technology.All of those players are buying machines, and architects are queuing up to make new homes for Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm.Repetitive aesthetic notwithstanding, 3D printed construction is moving forward.
We rarely see such a broad adoption in 3D printing.Usually one firm (Align), or a small cluster of firms (Italian orthopedics companies), starts an innovation wave in making 3D printing applications work.Here, we’re seeing nearly all players in the construction ecosystem explore additive.
From India to the UK, Australia to California, we are seeing experimentation and active projects.We are also seeing lots of different buildings being printed, from data centers to tunnel components.The 3D printed construction opportunity is clearly present and developing.
Now, how large it will be is something we do not know.At the moment, all of these construction projects are experiments meant to validate the technology in the field.Depending on machine performance, environmental effects, and binder materials, we could see various outcomes.
Many players could be buoyed by additive success and a market will be born.Or simultaneously, key players could turn away from additive and focus on other things.The logic of 3D printed buildings is there, and it could be a very cost-effective, deployable technology.
But, will there be completely new businesses that emerge from 3D printed construction? Are there things that could be done, well within current stage technology, that could be very innovative? Without bending the laws of physics or doing drunken Excel, could we foresee some new businesses and new business models that could be possible with 3D printed construction? There are three that come to mind.Modular & Demountable Construction With 3D Printing TIP is a $1 billion revenue trailers for trucks company.Losberger DeBoer is a Dutch firm that rents out large tents and temporary buildings, and does around $270 million in revenue.
They are a part of the Demountable construction market in which structures are rented out.These temporary buildings could be containers, tents, or prefabricated modules.Generally, they’re easy to transport to a location, and could be a temporary classroom, hospital wing, or aircraft hangar.
From week-long pop festivals to year-long temporary apartment blocks, the market covers a lot of needs.The modular construction market, which could include some demountable structures but also include things that would be classed differently, could be worth as much as $100 billion.Whether these structures cater to events, disaster relief, or have to do with increased flows of students or workers to a city, they’re all temporary and have been designed to be moved elsewhere.
Polymer 3D printing could be used for formwork, while concrete 3D printing could construct temporary structures or parts of structures.Think of a 3D printer putting in a foundation for an island of other structures, for example.Or think of a containerized hospital that needs a foundation.
3D printing could help make temporary polymer structures and recycle old parts of structures.Tents could be joined through locally 3D printed structures, or a large stage could be 3D printed at a concert.Large structures that could not be easily driven in on a trailer could be built on location as well.
One could 3D print arches and then bring in tent canvas.Foundations for disaster relief could be 3D printed and then turned into other structures after the fact.Migratory Architecture One could think a little further and use in-factory 3D printing to make a lot of containerized, 3D printed building structures.
We could 3D print many interior elements such as walls, furniture, housings, rooms, and more.We can also use recycled materials to do this.Buildings could be customized quickly to meet demand.
One type of building could be partially recycled and then repurposed as a new one.Then we could build off of this to create true migratory architecture.Ski lodges could cater to guests in Europe’s North during the winter, then be sent south for vacationing people summering on the Mediterranean.
The key thing is that additional formwork, foundations, and surrounding structures could also be made at both locations.You could therefore have a migratory housing market that could sustainably meet demand.Maybe the locals would be more amenable to more holiday homes, if they were only there for a few months? Perhaps you could make all the homes on a flood plane easy to remove quickly? To me, this is a totally doable, perhaps financially attractive, and hopefully sustainable business.
Airbnb generates $2.4 billion just from temporary lodgings of holiday properties; the broader opportunity is much larger.Temporary Architecture In Japan, wooden houses that use traditional wood joinery are made to be disassembled.This is a form of temporary architecture that has been in use for centuries.
In the rest of the world, a lot of energy, CO2, and water leads to concrete buildings that last for only a few decades.As much as 11% of global energy CO2 emissions are from the materials and construction of buildings.Embodied carbon means that a new house can cause 15 to a 100 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
With 3D printing, WASP and others have demonstrated using locally available materials to make buildings.Outhouses, Dior huts, and expo buildings have already been made in this way.What if we just use sustainable materials to make temporary structures in an organized way? One idea would be to collect all of the water bottles at a university and use them to make the walls of new sports buildings.
Does a building need to be reconfigured if it can be ground up and reused? Now of course, there is an energy cost associated with this.A more elegant solution may be to use natural geopolymers, soil, dirt, sand, or other materials and print the structure out of these.Then that structure could be engineered to disappear or fall apart in a certain time frame.
It could also be engineered so that if you add baking soda and vinegar, the building will turn back into sludge.In that case, you could have melting buildings that would be sustainable for the right situation.Conclusion These is not meant to be pie in the sky ideas.
On the whole, this seems like a trio of potentially very lucrative opportunities.Perhaps a business could digitize construction in a more radical way than others have conceived by using available, market-ready 3D printing technologies.A more digital building that is more easily changeable, removable, and recyclable could be a good thing for the planet.
But, it could also be a very cost-effective and deployable solution for customers.Maybe you could use less labor than a tent, and have less people involved in decommissioning the building while making transport cheaper, all at the same time.On the whole, 3D printing used like that could usher in a new way to make buildings that meets the needs of guests precisely where they are needed.
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