Skip to main content

These 3D-printed houses could be one-tenth the price of regular homes

Jüri Liiv

Thanks to advances in 3D printing, it’s possible to use additive manufacturing to print just about anything these days — houses included. But can you produce these houses in a way that results in energy-efficient properties, can be done at a low cost, and uses locally available resources? Because if you can’t, it’s going to remain all but impossible to utilize 3D printing to help solve the massive shortage of housing that exists, for a variety of reasons, around the world.

Fortunately, that is something that scientists from Estonia’s University of Tartu and the Estonian University of Life Sciences have been working on — and they created a promising solution in the form of a 3D-printable concrete-style material that is created from milled peat, oil shale ash, and silica nanoparticles. The results could reduce the construction cost of private houses by around 10 times.

Recommended Videos

“Peat has excellent antibacterial and thermal properties, and is inexpensive and widely available in many regions in the world,” Jüri Liiv, a Ph.D. researcher with the Estonian Peat Research Center, told Digital Trends. “[However, it has not been] used as a component of concrete-organic materials because of its properties retarding the concrete hardening. Humates present in peat prevent the forming [of] the silicate composite structure and react with pozzolanic minerals, thus preventing forming [a] mechanically durable material. During our last project, the issue was successfully solved, and now we are able to form a durable peat-based composite with very high thermal and mechanical properties.”

The composite material the team has developed is both strong and possesses good thermal conductivity. Despite the fact that peat is used as fuel, the material is also (crucially) not combustible. It hardens within one day of being printed, although it remains elastic for longer than this — making it possible to close any air gaps.

According to the team’s estimates, a house shell with a surface area of up to 490 square-feet could be printed for around $5,850. Unfortunately, Liiv noted that there was insufficient funding for the team to print a full-sized test house. Instead, they have been limited to wall segments as a proof of concept. Liiv hopes that there will be access to a full-size 3D printer this fall, which will give the researchers the chance to finally create their proposed test house.

A paper describing the project was recently published in the journal Sustainable Materials and Technologies.

Luke Dormehl
Former Digital Trends Contributor
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
3D printed cheesecake? Inside the culinary quest to make a Star Trek food replicator
a slice of 3D printed cheesecake

Along with jetpacks, holograms, and universal healthcare, one of the great unfilled promises of the Star Trek-style future is the food replicator. Few concepts hold more sway over both the keen foodies always on the lookout for the latest trend in dining and those of us who can barely be bothered to put a frozen pizza in the oven than a box in your home which can create any meal you desire.

You press a button, and the machine whirs and beeps and creates the delicious dish of your choosing, no tedious chopping or marinating or pan-searing required. It’s an idea far too good to be true — but we might be one step closer to this paradisiacal utopia than you think.
How to 3D print a cheesecake
Researchers from Columbia University recently managed to 3D-print a cheesecake, in a process that is exactly as delightful as it sounds. They detailed their discoveries in an article in npj Science of Food, and we spoke to lead author Jonathan Blutinger to learn how they did it.

Read more
AMD is bringing 3D V-Cache back to Ryzen 7000 — but there’s a twist
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D socketed in a motherboard.

Great news for AMD fans -- the company has now officially confirmed that it will be bringing back 3D V-Cache in the upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors, as well as future Zen 5 CPUs.

Unfortunately, there is a catch -- it seems that the technology will still not be as widespread as some may have hoped for.

Read more
The AnkerMake M5 3D printer brings higher print speeds
The AnkerMake M5 on a desk.

Anker's first foray into the world of 3D printers, the AnkerMake M5, is available today on Kickstarter with a super early bird price of $429. It brings with it innovations not before seen in the 3D printing space.

Assembly has been streamlined and simplified. The M5 can be set up in three steps -- about 15 minutes total. It takes the stress out of setup and operation with features like 7x7 auto-leveling, PEI soft magnetic printing bed, printing notifications, and the ability to automatically resume if the print is interrupted due to a power outage.

Read more