Europe’s largest 3D-printed building is scheduled for completion in July in Heidelberg, Germany.
Spearheaded by Kraus Group, a local real estate developer, investor, and manager, this 6,600-sf project is being constructed for Heidelberg IT Management GmbH and Company KG, a cloud and data center provider. The building will contain an IT server hotel.
PERI 3D Construction is using a BOD2 3D construction printer to print the building’s walls, which PERI estimates will take only 140 hours to complete, or the equivalent of printing four square meters of building per hour.
The printer robots are provided by COBOD, which produced Europe’s first 3D-printed building in 2017 and has sold more than 65 3D printers worldwide. Denmark-based COBOD’s key shareholders include General Electric, CEMEX, Holcim Group, and PERI, the latter of which first used a BOD2 machine in 2020.
Looking to print taller buildings
The Heidelberg project is 162 ft long by 121 ft wide by 30 ft high. Its construction started on March 31. Hans-Jörg Kraus, managing partner of Kraus Group, said in a prepared statement that this project represents his firm’s commitment to innovative and sustainable construction methods.
Henrik Lund-Nielsen, COBOD’s founder and GM, added that the two key benefits of 3D printing for construction are speed of execution and design freedom, noting that other projects his company’s printers have been used for include residential housing in Africa and offices in Germany.
The Heidelberg data center’s architects are SSV Architekten and Mense Korte. Heidelberg Materials is supplying an estimated 450 tons of its i.tech 3D printing mortar for this project, which is 100 percent recyclable and contains a binder with a carbon footprint that’s 55 percent lower than Portland cement.
Construction Europe magazine’s website reports that without 3D printing, the unusual design of the building’s walls would have required customized form work. COBOD’s 3D printing system is currently limited to around 9 meters in height, and the company is reportedly working on new technology that will allow its robots to print at taller heights. (The world’s tallest 3D-printed building to date is the three-story, 9.9-meter-high Dar Arkan villa in Saudi Arabia.)
The cost of the Heidelberg project was not disclosed.
Related Stories
| Nov 10, 2011
Thornton Tomasetti’s Joseph and Choi to co-chair the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Outrigger Design Working Group
Design guide will describe in detail the application of outriggers within the lateral load resisting systems of tall buildings, effects on building behavior and recommendations for design.
| Nov 9, 2011
Lincoln Center Pavilion wins national architecture and engineering award
The project team members include owner Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York; design architect and interior designer of the restaurant, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, New York; executive architect, FXFOWLE, New York; and architect and interior designer of the film center, Rockwell Group, New York; structural engineer Arup (AISC Member), New York; and general contractor Turner Construction Company (AISC Member), New York.
| Oct 27, 2011
ASSA Abloy, MAXXESS Systems announce U.S. Aperio integration
Aperio will integrate with MAXXESS's eAXxess and Efusion Event Management Software packages.
| Oct 25, 2011
Ritner Steel CEO elected to AISC Board
Freund will begin serving on the AISC board of directors, assisting with the organization's planning and leadership in the steel construction industry.
| Oct 25, 2011
Commitment to green building practices pays off
The study, conducted by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, built on a good indication of the potential for increased productivity and performance pilot research completed two years ago, with similarly impressive results.
| Oct 24, 2011
BBS Architects & Engineers receives 2011 Sustainable Design Award from AIA Long Island Chapter
AIA LI also recognized BBS with the 2011 ARCHI Award Commendation for the St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery St. Charles Resurrection Cemetery Welcoming and Information Center in Farmingdale, NY.
| Oct 24, 2011
Kolbe adds 3-D models of direct set windows to BIM library?
Beveled Direct Set SketchUp and Revit Models available.
| Oct 20, 2011
Johnson Controls appoints Wojciechowski to lead real estate and facilities management business for Global Technology sector
Wojciechowski will be responsible for leading the continued growth of the technology vertical market, while building on the expertise the company has developed serving multinational technology companies.
| Oct 18, 2011
Dow Building Solutions invests in two research facilities to deliver data to building and construction industry
State-of-the-art monitoring system allows researchers to collect, analyze and process the performance of wall systems.
| Oct 18, 2011
Architectural leaders join Gehry to form strategic alliance
Alliance dedicated to transforming the building industry through technology.
