3D printing may be the answer to the growing housing affordability and housing supply crises.

Apis Cor, a 3D-printing specialist based in Russia and San Francisco, recently 3D printed an entire house in Stupino, Moscow Oblast, within 24 hours. The company used a mobile 3D printer to print the house’s concrete walls, partitions, and building envelope. Workers then manually painted the home and installed the roofing materials, wiring, hydro-acoustic, and thermal insulation.

The process of 3D printing a home usually involves printing the components offsite and then assembling the structure onsite. In contrast, Apis Cor’s revolutionary mobile 3D printer is capable of printing components onsite, which saves time and money and eliminates transportation costs.

After completing the wall structures, the 3D printer was removed from the site with a crane manipulator.

The result is a 400 sq. ft. house that’s as big as a standard hotel room. The finished home was also furnished with high-tech appliances courtesy of Samsung.

“[The construction of a single-storey house] was selected specifically … as one of the main purposes of this construction is to demonstrate the flexibility of equipment and diversity of available forms,” Apis Cor said. “The house can be of any shape, including the familiar square shape, because the additive technology has no restrictions on design of new buildings, except for the laws of physics. It means it’s time to talk about the new fantastic potential of architectural solutions.”

Aside from the speed and efficiency of the 3D-printing process, the finished tiny home is highly affordable. Apis Cor said the whole house costs about US$10,134 (A$13,432) to build, with the doors and windows consuming the largest part of the budget. This figure sounds just about right for a tiny home, though it doesn’t take into account the cost of the land.

Compact, 3D-printed homes could prove popular with the growing number of single households in some of Australia’s largest cities, and their quick construction time could help alleviate the housing supply shortage in Sydney and Melbourne.

Check out the video below to learn more about Apis Cor’s construction process:

 

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