Mansion and apartment block created using 3D printer in China

Last year news began surfacing of industrious folks who had big dreams — literally big — for 3D printing, namely using the technology to "print" houses one layer at a time. One Chinese company in particular demonstrated this last year by printing single homes, and it seems it has been busy refining the technology since then. Latest among its creations are two massive structures, both likewise created using 3D printing: a mansion and an apartment block. Both of them are said to be proof-of-concept creations, but they demonstrate how the future of affordable, quickly-produced homes might come about.

The creation was made by Chinese company Winsun, and as you can see in the images below, the maker's home-printing technology seems to have grown by bounds since its individual homes came to light. The most impressive one is arguably the mansion, which measures in at 11,840 square feet and is more or less a shell of a completed home.

The second structure is also impressive for its sheer size: a five story apartment block with multiple living units inside. Both buildings were made by printing one layer at a time with concrete, which you can see for yourself in the gallery below. The inside of the buildings look unrefined for this reason, but a completed structure would hide the layer behind finished walls.

The mansion and the apartment block are both on display in China. It isn't clear what the company is doing with its technology — whether it is actively looking into printing apartment structures, for example, or whether it is shopping around its technology to other companies that would then utilize it for creating 3D printed homes.

SOURCE: Tech in Asia