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THE 3D PRINTED BRIDGE CONCRETE HOUSE
The “Rapid Construction System for Concrete Houses” is designed specifically for low-income families in Africa. With an area of 40㎡, the house contains a porch, a guest dining room, bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom, etc., meeting the living demand of up to 4 individuals. The porch, kitchen, and bathroom are arranged on one side of the house, forming a rectangular unit; the guest dining room and bedrooms are arranged on the other, with a light partition wall or storage furniture in the middle separating the two parts. The layout of the house is flexible so that it can adapt to actual living requirements. The roof consists of two-barrel arches, among which one is larger than the other, covering respectively the above-mentioned spaces while creating a spacious and comfortable indoor environment underneath.
A Floor-to-ceiling window is installed on both the south and the north side of the house while a skylight is used in the kitchen roof, providing ample lighting for the indoor space. The exterior walls adopted the traditional local woven texture as decoration, which was printed altogether with the wall structure by the robotic 3-D printing equipment. The thermal insulation material is poured into the gap within the wall, forming an integrative exterior wall system with decoration, structure, and insulation all in one. The building comes with a simple and modern architectural image while responding to the local
cultural traditions.
The “Mobile Platform of Robotic 3-D Printing in Concrete” contains a mobile robotic arm with a 3-D printing device, a rail with a mobile lift platform, and a dragging-suspending platform, etc. In the 3-D printing device, the robotic arm and the printing front-end are installed and designed to be movable on the lift platform. The printing material, the appending machine, the stirring and pumping all-in-one machine, and the control equipment, on the other hand, are installed on the dragging-suspending platform.
In order to print/construct a whole house, the printing platform requires only two persons pushing buttons on the mobile platform. While substantially integrating and simplifying the technique of 3-D printing in concrete, it reduces the human input in the printing/ construction process to a minimum. This printing platform enables direct, on-site printing of all bases, walls, and roofs, resulting in rapid construction at a low cost.
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