The largest 3D-printed residential building in Europe

The residential building in Wallenhausen has a full-length basement and, upon completion, will consist of five apartments across three floors with around 380 square metres of living space. This is not a research or demonstration project. Once construction is complete, the apartments will be rented out in the usual manner. Only one of the apartments will be used as a show apartment.

PERI is using the gantry printer BOD2 for this construction printing project in Wallenhausen. The system has a print head that moves about 3 axes on a securely installed metallic frame. The benefit here is that the printer can move along its frame to any position within the construction and only needs to be calibrated once. This saves time and cuts costs.

During the printing process, the printer takes into account the pipes and connections for water, electricity, etc. that are to be laid at a later time. The BOD2 has been certified in such a way that it is possible to carry out work within the printing area while printing is in progress. This means that manual work, such as the installation of empty pipes and connections, can be easily integrated into the printing process.

Two operators are required to run the printer. The print head and the print results are monitored by a camera. With a speed of 1 m/s, the BOD2 is currently the fastest 3D construction printer available on the market. The BOD2 only takes around five minutes to complete 1m² of a double-skin wall.