You are on PERI's international website. Click here to switch to PERI USA. Click here to view all PERI websites.

3D Construction Printing
 
The BOD – Europe’s first 3D printed building
 
The BOD – Europe’s first 3D printed building
 
The goal of this project was to demonstrate how 3D printing technology could be applied in the traditional construction industry in Europe.

The idea for this project came from our participation in the Danish government funded 3D concrete printing project, during which we visited more than 35 3D concrete printing projects worldwide. We realised that Europe was falling behind and we took up the challenge to be the first in Europe to print in 3D a building that meets the strict European building regulations. 

The building


The BOD, which stands for "Building on Demand," is named exactly that to emphasize that 3D printing technology applied to construction projects automates the building process and pushes the limits of what is possible. Although the BOD is less than 50 square meters, it is large enough to demonstrate some of the economic and architectural benefits of using 3D printing technology for buildings. With traditional building techniques, any shape, organic or not, is a challenge, both technically and in terms of cost.

The BOD does not contain straight walls, the only straight elements are the windows and doors. Even when making the foundation, a not straight shape is an expensive and difficult challenge with traditional methods, which is why we printed not only the walls but also part of the foundation for the BOD building in 3D.

”We are excited about having participated and contributed to this project. We managed to develop a recipe which not only was suitable for 3D printing, but also had a significant share of recycled content. Denmark is among the front-runners with respect to recycling, but in this project, we even managed to go from the usual downcycling of construction waste to recycling and upcycling”

Jens D. Henriksen, Force Institute

THE BUILDING

Proving the technology and printing the first house in Europe has been challenging, but very instructive.