Freeform Concrete 3D Printer to Construct Möbius Strip Building

Universe Architecture and the BAM group have unveiled a concrete 3D printer called the 3D BUILDER.

It’s been roughly three years since Dutch architect Janjaap Ruijssenaars unveiled his concept for the 3D-printed Landscape House, a building designed to have no beginning or end. A structural manifestation of a Möbius strip, the Landscape House would twist over and under itself. If only there were a construction company willing to take it on.

The Landscape House concept. (Image courtesy of the BAM Group.)

The Landscape House concept. (Image courtesy of the BAM Group.)

Fortunately for Ruijssenaars and his firm, Universe Architecture, European construction group BAM Bouw en Techniek wanted to help bring his project to life. At Fab City in Amsterdam, Universe Architecture and BAM unveiled the 3D BUILDER 3D printing platform. Constructed by the two partners, the freeform 3D printer will be used to 3D print concrete structures, including Ruijssenaars’ Landscape House concept.

The 3D BUILDER combines an AcoTech industrial robotic arm with an interchangeable printhead based off of the work of Enrico Dini’s D-Shape 3D printer. The D-Shape printhead, featuring 300 nozzles, uses a binder jetting technique to combine a mixture of sand and solid magnesium oxide with a liquid binder that includes magnesium hexahydrate.

While the D-Shape platform, also utilized by Italian 3D printing firm Desamanera, utilizes a large gantry system, the 3D BUILDER involves a robotic arm that sweeps the printhead across layers of build material. This could potentially make for a more flexible 3D printing system, dependent on the reach and size of the industrial robotic arm used. If the printhead was installed onto an even larger robotic arm, such as that employed by Branch Technology, very large walls could be 3D printed.

BAM and Universe Architecture suggest that their robot could even travel across a building site autonomously if Caterpillar tracks are added to the machine’s base. The partners also envision adding complementary printing techniques to the construction process that might be capable of 3D printing steel and insulation materials.

As Ruijssenaars said of the system, “It is fantastic that we have jointly conceived a machine that can make something new. This was much more commonplace for architects during the Renaissance.” As BAM’s Rutger Sypkens added, “As well as the form freedom, we are also very much taken by the circular process. Concrete granulate and pre-existing prints can serve as a raw material for the machine at a later stage.”

The 3D-printed Landscape House bench. (Image courtesy of Universe Architecture.)

The 3D-printed Landscape House bench. (Image courtesy of Universe Architecture.)

Universe Architecture and BAM have already 3D printed a scale model of the Landscape House in the form of a concrete bench unveiled this past February. Next, the collaborators will begin 3D printing a 1:4 scale model of the structure at the sustainable Fab City campus.