Big challenges face our society and our planet, none bigger or more pressing than climate change. A ray of hope is how innovative new technologies are tackling a number of these challenges simultaneously. In the housing sector, the 3D-printing process, without much publicity, is launching a revolution in construction materials and methods that are addressing affordability, energy-efficiency, durability, and beauty while erecting structures in record time and at scale.
The software, robotics, and new mixes of materials are technically complex but once the large printers, equipped with robotic arms that travel on rails, are set up, the process is simple. Nozzles at the ends of the robotic arms extrude environmentally friendly concrete mixes, plastics, hemp, mud, wood fibers, and other materials in a layering sequence to create solid, three-dimensional walls. Large sections of the building are printed and then assembled. Tech firms and architects are teaming up to produce designs that incorporate undulating curves that would be extremely time-consuming and prohibitively expensive to create using traditional building practices.
Jason Ballard, CEO of one of these pioneering tech firms, says, “With 3D printing, you not only have a continuous thermal envelope, high thermal mass, and near zero waste, but you also have speed, a much broader design palette, next-level resiliency, and the possibility of a quantum leap in affordability. This isn’t 10 percent better; it’s 10 times better.”