Credit: www.3ders.org
The first 3D printed house in Saudi Arabia took only two days to complete. 3D printed houses have been popping up all around the world throughout 2018 and the Saudi Kingdom did not want to be left without its own, especially considering their goal of reaching 60% homeownership by 2020 and 70% by 2030. Construction costs are much lower for 3D printed homes, mostly because they require less time and human labor, so it follows that homeownership will increase with more printed homes.
Dutch company CyBe 3D printed the concrete house in Riyadh on Housing Ministry land west of King Khalid International Airport where it was later inspected by Saudi Housing Minister of Housing, Majed bin Abdullah Al-Hogail, and Deputy Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Eng Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Abdul Karim. As the head of AEC and manufacturing at Autodesk, Naji Atallah points out that Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategy “cannot be achieved” without widespread adoption of 3D printing and augmented reality.
The project is intended to prove the feasibility of 3D printing homes and encourage more private industries to invest in the technology. Minister Majed bin Abdullah Al-Hogail relates, “This experiment gives us an idea about the future of construction in the coming years and the Kingdom’s role in leveraging modern technologies to achieve prosperity for its citizens.”
