Dutch designers to build world's first liveable 3D-printed housing community

We’ve seen 3D printing for houses in action before, but the Dutch city of Eindhoven will become the first in the world to create habitable concrete housing from a 3D printer.

A community of concrete 3D-printed houses, known as Project Milestone, is on the horizon.

Five houses will be built as part of the project – a collaboration between Dutch construction company Van Wijnen and the Eindhoven University of Technology –hoping to provide a solution to a lack of skilled bricklayers in The Netherlands.

But 3D printing comes with other benefits, namely reducing the amount of overall concrete used in construction, making these homes cheaper and more sustainable to build.

The first home to be printed will be a single storey, three-room house.

Since being put on the rental market, the single level home has already had 20 applications from interested families – just one week after images became available, according to The Guardian.

Read more: This house can be 3D-printed in 24 hours for $5K

The 3D printer is like a large robotic arm that pipes out layers of the specially-formulated cement.

The cement is then ‘printed’ according to an architect’s design. It adds layer upon layer, creating a wall which increases in strength with each addition. 

For now, only the exterior and interior walls will be printed with the technology, but developers hope by the time the fifth house goes into construction, drainage pipes and other necessary installations will also be made using the printer.

The fifth and largest house will be three storeys with three bedrooms.

In the video above, one of the designers comments how the houses look like five stones have landed in a field.

This is quite a feat for concrete, usually constrained from creating interesting shapes due to its rigidity.

3D printing with the same material, however, allows the construction of buildings of almost any shape.

The news is a huge leap forward for 3D-printing technology, bringing affordable and sustainable building closer to reality.

Numerous 3D-printed houses have been made in recent years, as researchers continue to develop and refine the technology.

Read more: The next wave of 3D-printed houses are more works of art