The researchers printed a house of fully recycled natural materials in 3D.
CTOnews.com, Nov. 24-the United States is facing a historic housing shortage, and researchers at the University of Maine think they may have found a solution to the problem. The University's Advanced structures and Composites Center (ASCC) uses one of the world's largest 3D printers and recently built the first 3D printing house made entirely of bio-based materials.
CTOnews.com learned that finding a way to make 3D printed houses on a large scale is a challenge that many companies have been trying to solve in recent years. So far, most solutions have to use concrete or clay and traditional building methods, such as wooden frames, unlike ASCC's "BioHome3D" 3D printing houses.
The 55.7 square meter 3D printed house prototype has 3D printed floors, walls and roofs and is made of sustainably available wood fibers and biological resins. The house is also completely recyclable and does not take weeks or months of on-site construction to assemble. After printing out four modules in 3D, the center assembled the BioHome3D in half a day. Then an electrician spent about two hours wiring the house.
ASCC believes that BioHome3D can help solve the housing shortage in the United States by reducing the materials and labor needed to build comfortable housing. In Maine alone, there is a growing shortage of about 20000 housing across the state.
Jenny Schuetz, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, believes that the current housing problem in the United States stems from restrictive zoning laws and land-use regulations that allow residents to prevent the construction of more houses in their neighborhoods. In other words, the US housing crisis is a policy issue, not a technical one.
This is not to say that technology has no effect on improving housing. Cement, the key ingredient of concrete, has a huge carbon footprint. As of 2018, the production of the material generated about 8% of annual greenhouse gas emissions, more pollution than the aviation industry as a whole. It is very important for the environment to reduce or completely eliminate the demand for concrete in residential construction.
