3D Printing of Buildings. Limits, Design, Advantages and Disadvantages. Could This Technique Contribute to Sustainability of Future Buildings?

Recently, a phenomenon of “printing” houses and construction 3D printers has taken on or greatly increased in many parts of the world. This phenomenon is intensively shown in various media and in science news and science articles. 3D printers and house printing are praised to be very advantageous from economical, energetic and sustainable point of view. However, there are no norms or rules to cover this type of construction works. In addition, a lack of methods for structural calculation and for certification of materials regarding “printing” is observed. Effects on future design and execution of this type of constructions on the market labor and on education in construction domain are unknown. In addition to some practical applications and their characteristics, this paper tries to present the requirements of 3D-Printing applications in the field of constructions, limitation of current technologies, the advantages and disadvantages of 3D printed houses and the effects on the listed above sub-domains. Future of 3D printing for constructions is analyzed in a sustainability perspective.