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In the Netherlands You Can Rent Houses That Are 3D-Printed

There’s nothing you can’t 3D-print in this day and age, including an entire house. Meet Project Milestone, the world’s first commercial housing project based on 3D-concrete printing. It’s happening in the Netherlands, where five 3D-printed houses will be offered for rent. The first one already found its tenants.
Project Milestone 3D-printed house 6 photos
Photo: Jarett Gross/YouTube
Project Milestone - 3D-Printed HouseProject Milestone - 3D-Printed HouseProject Milestone - 3D-Printed HouseProject Milestone - 3D-Printed HouseProject Milestone - 3D-Printed House
The 3D-printed house in question features a futuristic design envisioned by Houben/Van Mierlo architects, who worked in collaboration with Vesteda, Saint-Gobain Weber Beamix, Witteveen + Bos and Wijnen. It was built off-site, as supposed to the fifth house in the project, which is designed to have two levels and will be assembled entirely on-site.

The modern house blends perfectly into their wooden surroundings, and the 3D printing technique used allowed for freedom of form, as supposed to using concrete in the traditional way, which would have been very rigid in shape. Instead, fine concrete prints allow you to work with the material in a very detailed way, creating various shapes such as convex, round, or hollow.

There is also another benefit to using concrete printing over traditionally poured concrete. With the latter, you work with a solid material and you tend to use way more than you need to, which is bad for the environment because producing cement releases a lot of greenhouse gases. A concrete printer, on the other hand, lays concrete only where needed.

All five printed houses will be located in Bosrijk, in the Meerhoven district of Eindhoven. The site is called the “sculpture garden.” The houses look like boulders from nature, with the wall structure curving into the roof.

This first unit is fully functional. Each element was printed separately, which leads to less cracking because the elements have room to shrink and expand due to temperature changes. With a monolithic structure, that would be an issue.

This first Milestone house is a two-bedroom unit with two bathrooms, although it seems even more spacious thanks to the rounded walls.

The sustainable, energy-efficient house will get occupied this August, and Project Milestone hopes to have all five houses occupied for several decades.

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About the author: Cristina Mircea
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Cristina’s always found writing more comfortable to do than speaking, which is why she chose print over broadcast media in college. When she’s not typing, she also loves riding non-motorized two-wheelers, going on hikes with her dog, and rocking her electric guitars.
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