In Brief
- Construction firm Cazza Technologies has announced plans
to build the world's first 3D printed skyscraper in the city of Dubai in
the United Arab Emirates.
- As more 3D printed construction projects come to fruition, the
tech is expected to become cheaper, further speeding up the pace of
adoption.
A Tall Order
Dubai-based construction firm Cazza Technologies has announced plans to build the world’s first 3D printed skyscraper.
“When we first thought of implementing 3D printing technologies, we
were mostly thinking of houses and low-rise buildings. Developers kept
asking us if it was possible to build a 3D printed skyscraper. This led
us to begin researching how we could adapt the technologies for taller
structures,” Chris Kelsey, CEO of Cazza, explained to Construction Week Online.
The company’s large robotic 3D printers already allow them to
construct architecturally complex buildings at unprecedented speeds. All
of the essential structural components for tall buildings, including
reinforcements with steer rebar, can be 3D printed using this system.
For the skyscraper project, the system will simply be merged with
existing cranes, which means there’s no need to build specialized cranes
from scratch. Any construction elements for the skyscraper that can’t
be 3D printed will be completed using traditional construction methods.
While Cazza has confirmed that the first 3D printed skyscraper using
its novel construction method will be built in Dubai, details such as
the building’s height or when the project will begin are still under
wraps.
3D Printing Everything
3D printing technology has already established a foothold in numerous
fields. It’s particularly prevalent in the medical industry, where it
is being used to build organs and human cells,
but the tech’s application in housing and construction hasn’t exactly
been moving at the same rate. Nevertheless, ambitious 3D projects such
as Cazza’s are set to shine a spotlight on the technology’s potential.
Once others see this potential for speed and cost efficiency, they will
be more likely to adopt the tech themselves.
Cazza
may be the first company to attempt to 3D print a skyscraper, but others
have successfully completed smaller projects, including a tiny guesthouse in Amsterdam and a Suzhou-style Chinese villa in
Binzhou. As more projects such as those are undertaken, the technology
will become cheaper, further speeding up the pace of adoption. “It is
all about economies of scale where the initial high technology costs
will reduce as we enter the mass-production phase,” explains
Kelsey. Eventually, 3D printed skyscrapers could be the norm.
یکشنبه 30 مهر 1396 ساعت 19:01
