3D printing has made some massive strides. In fact, in recent years, we’ve even started to see architects experimenting with using 3D printing to create entire houses. If you really want to be astounded, though, you should check out the video below, which showcases how Europe’s biggest 3D-printed building was printed in just 140 hours.
That’s an astoundingly short amount of time for an entire building to be erected, and The Wave House, a data center located in Heidelberg, is what many consider a significant advancement in the construction industry. The building was printed at a rate of four square meters per hour and has a total area of 6,600 square feet (600 square meters).
That makes it an insanely large building to print out in just a matter of days. Europe’s biggest 3D-printed building was completed utilizing a BOD2 printer from COBOD International. The construction was headed by the Peri group, which began pushing the boundaries of using 3D printing in construction as early as 2020.
The building features a very peculiar appearance, and when looking at it, you can tell that it was put together layer by layer as the 3D printer made its rounds. The building is devoid of any large windows due to safety issues with it being a data center, so the building looks like a big lump of 3D-printed material.
The construction company says it decided to use 3D printing as it would achieve a wave-like appearance on the walls, making the data center a bit more appealing. As these centers are being used in more suburban areas than ever, construction engineers are looking for ways to make them look better while still providing the same safety expected from the windowless appearances many of them have.
Seeing a project this large come to life in a timelapse is very surreal. It will be intriguing to see what other kinds of 3D-printed buildings come to life in the coming months, especially after seeing them create such a large building in just 140 hours. Doctors have also found ways to 3D print inside the human body, so it will be interesting to see what people do with this technology next.
