Image: Azure Printed Homes
Would you ever live in a home made from recycled, 3D printed plastics? Azure Printed Homes wants to make that a reality.
Azure in Los Angeles is building these homes and last week the company showed off its studio build at LA Tech Week, set to cost $US24,900 (about $36,081 in Australia, though it’s not available here yet). It’s not the first 3D printed home project, but it is one of the first to combine 3D printed construction and plastic recycling.
Honestly, it looks quite impressive: the studio build, while looking a bit like a detachable bathroom with a modern architecture style, seems modular in style and broad in scope.
“The construction sector is the largest global consumer of raw materials, responsible for approximately 11 per cent of the world’s total carbon emissions. Our responsibility to our customers and to future generations is to use the most sustainable practices imaginable,” said Ross Maguire, the CEO of Azure, during the reveal of the studio build earlier this year.
“We have created production efficiencies not only by capitalising on the advances in 3D printing but by creating a design and process that is completed in only 20 hours.
“When compared with conventional construction, we produce the entire structural skeleton, the exterior sheathing, the water control barrier, the exterior finish, the passageways for utilities, and the grounding for interior finishes, in a fraction of the time and cost. By revolutionising anew age of home building with our sustainable, automated and exact production processes, we see a very exciting future ahead."
A concept for a 3D printed home.Image: Azure Printed Homes
Azure’s goal, as you can probably tell, is to cut down on plastics in landfills or oceans and to repurpose it as building materials. Additionally, Azure claims that its method of 3D printing with recycled plastics was 70 per cent faster with 30 per cent fewer costs than traditional home construction methods.
The idea is to create a circular economy, making the best use of previously used materials.
This is a pretty welcome concept, Recycled plastics have long been considered as an option for the construction industry, given that they’re long-lasting, waterproof, often lightweight and quite easy to mould.
Another concept. Image: Azure Printed Homes
Azure Printed Homes is currently tasked with developing a 14 home community, set to begin work in November.
I hope that one day they make their way over to Australia, but there’s been no word on that just yet.