Project Milestone may be a glimpse into the future of affordable home construction. The project which will be completed in 2019 will provide affordable housing and have a smaller environmental footprint due to efficiencies in the construction method – 3D printing.
The designs of the 3D-printed concrete homes slated to be built in the Dutch city of Eindhoven over the next five years. An unassuming field in the Dutch city of Eindhoven is the planned location of the world’s first habitable cluster of 3D-printed concrete homes. By 2023, planners say, five hulking gray shapes will loom against the sky there like the rocks of Stonehenge, with the first building set to be completed mid-2019. The endeavor, called “ Project Milestone ,” is a collaboration between the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the municipality of Eindhoven and four companies. To construct the homes, the project will use a 3D printer, which looks like a giant icing kit, to squirt layer upon layer of concrete to make the curved walls of the five buildings ― working first in the university lab and then, if the technique can be stabilized for Dutch wet weather conditions, on-site in the Meerhoven district of the city. The designs are the shape of a new technology that some experts believe could ultimately transform house construction, using a quicker, cheaper and less environmentally costly process. In the Netherlands and beyond, affordable housing is an increasingly pressing issue, even […]
