Customer experiences

We have to build more sustainable. Collaboration is essential here. When we look back in ten years’ time, we will see that these types of creative and innovative solutions and partnerships have been the starting point for sustainable construction.

The freedom of form that 3D printing creates in concrete creates an enormous new space of possibilities for designing and experiencing a home. At the same time, this new technique contributes to the necessary sustainability of the construction sector, acceleration of construction production and control of construction costs, essential to continue building affordable homes.

Why not build the “perfect wave skate obstacle” in Eindhoven that every (skate)boarder wants to ride? The 3D concrete printing (3DCP) technology allows for more form freedom in design. Even natural shapes like waves can be reproduced.

Such an element is almost impossible to do with formwork. So, here again, the 3D printer offered a solution. The cost of the printed lost formwork was equal to that of the budgeted traditional formwork. However, the great advantage was the significant savings in labor and lead time.

It’s great to see it happen. After much talking, thinking and pow-wows, the 29.5 meter long bridge is finally placed. Wow, what a delight.

It became clear to me that 3D printing offers more possibilities for sustainable and multifunctional designs. The flexibility in design is much greater. For example, you can easily produce thirty skate beams, each with slight variations. This would be prohibitively expensive with traditionally cast concrete. The production time is also short: you print for an hour, let the objects cure for two hours, and they are ready for use three days later.

Aan de kopse kanten van de zitelementen kunnen de kinderen het printwerk van de binnenzijde zien. Op deze wijze willen we de kinderen ook kennis laten maken met innovaties op het gebied van techniek. Omdat het lichte elementen zijn, is een dure fundering niet nodig. Daarnaast had ik acht verschillende mallen nodig gehad om alles traditioneel te storten. De totale kosten zijn dan ook lager dan zitelementen van traditioneel beton.