Europe’s largest 3D-printed building opens in Holstebro

Europe’s largest 3D-printed building, a small student housing complex in Holstebro, is ready for its first residents, DR reports. Skovsporet contains 36 3D-printed student apartments.

Physiotherapy student Amalie Hvas is among those moving in. Her two-room apartment measures 50 square metres. The complex also includes one-room apartments measuring 38 square metres, with lofts.

The homes were built by a large 3D printer that extrudes a five-centimetre-thick strip of concrete, building the walls layer by layer. The process is digitally controlled, allowing the entire construction to be simulated in advance and enabling a robot to follow a coordinate system instead of workers laying bricks manually, said Mikkel Brich, co-founder of 3DCP Group, which built the homes.

The method also allows more unconventional shapes and can reduce the amount of concrete used. Jon Spangenberg, a professor at the Technical University of Denmark, said the Holstebro project used 30 per cent of the material normally used in conventional precast concrete construction.

Spangenberg said cement production accounts for 7 to 8 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions and believes 3D-printed construction has significant potential. “We will see more of this in the future,” he said.