No bricklayers, only robots: Singapore's first 3D-printed house

Business Times

a day ago

[SINGAPORE] Most architects don't live inside their experiments. Lim Koon Park does.
In the lush district of Bukit Timah, he's built a home that rewrites the rules of construction – layer by printed layer. QR3D, the first 3D-printed house in the country, is not just a technical first. It's a working, breathing home designed around light, air, and lived experience. Four levels. Seven bedrooms. A 6-metre-high concrete oculus at its heart. And no bricklayers in sight.
For Lim, founder of the acclaimed architecture practice Park + Associates, QR3D is both a milestone and a meditation. 'We weren't interested in doing a technological demo,' he says, seated at his custom-made steel dining table. 'It had to be liveable. It had to feel like a real home.'
The striated texture of concrete proudly reveals its 3D-printed origins. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
Built on a 3,531-square-foot plot, the 6,130-square-foot residence is both elemental and expressive – a home where light and shadow fold into daily life, and every surface bears the quiet trace of its 3D-printed origins.
The entire structure pivots around a dramatic cylindrical void – an oculus that rises from the dining room floor to a skylight above. This centrepiece – referred to in the family as 'the cone' – doesn't just dramatise the architecture. It also performs. Hidden within its striated 3D-printed walls is a passive ventilator typically found in factories, drawing hot air upward and out.
'The cone defines the way the house is configured,' Lim explains. 'Every room has a reminder of it. The space-making elements curve around it, responding to it. It's not decorative. It's spatial.'
A NEWSLETTER FOR YOU
Friday, 2 pm Lifestyle
Our picks of the latest dining, travel and leisure options to treat yourself.
Sign Up
Sign Up
The 6-metre tall 'cone' isn't just a skylight – it's a structural centrepiece around which the entire house radiates. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
Because of the cone too, the rooms, corridors and stairwells don't flow in straight lines. They fracture and converge, tilt and realign, like the overlapping planes of a Cubist painting by Braque or Picasso. Space feels broken up and reassembled from multiple angles, never offering a single fixed perspective.
Each child – Lim has four – has a room with its own personality: one with a loft, another with generous light, another with a secluded nook. The master bedroom sits behind a narrow window, modestly lit, because, as Lim says, 'we never opened the curtains anyway'.
At the base of the cone, the dining area is celebrated as the heart of the home. 'We love food,' he smiles. 'And this was the space where everyone comes together.'
Because of the cone, the corridors and stairwells seem to fragment and splinter like Cubist paintings. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
A house sculpted by code
QR3D is 90 to 95 per cent 3D-printed – a remarkable feat given Singapore's conservative building landscape. Built as a semi-detached residence, the project partnered with local concrete printing specialist CES_InnovFab to split construction between on-site printing and off-site prefabrication. While some walls were layered outdoors under weather-controlled canopies, others were printed in a factory and trucked in.
'Certain inclines were a challenge,' Lim says. 'Concrete wants to slump. So we printed individual blocks – almost like bricks – and assembled them on site.'
Other challenges bordered on the theatrical: limited nozzle access near party walls, power fluctuations interrupting the print flow, and humidity sabotaging consistency. In one case, a precast wall panel cracked during hoisting. 'We didn't anticipate the lifting forces,' he says. 'So we developed a hook system to distribute the load. You live and learn.'
The textured wall surfaces add a subtle richness. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
Lim is quick to note that while most of the vertical surfaces were printed, the structural slabs and columns remained conventional. The columns, for instance, were shaped using printed molds, then filled with rebar cages and cast concrete. 'We're not printing structure – yet,' he says. 'It's still reinforced concrete inside. But one day, maybe.'
He is certainly thinking long-term: 'If I can make 3D-printing work with what I design, then it has a chance of going to the mainstream construction industry.'
For an architect with more than two decades in practice, QR3D also marked a return to first principles. Lim didn't design a house to initially fit the printer. He sketched out the house by hand – unusual for him – and only later adapted it for printing: 'I didn't want the technology to lead. It should be a value-add – not a limitation.'
The living room is tastefully furnished with statement pieces, including Le Corbusier armchairs. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
Although this house took longer to complete than expected and didn't result in dramatic cost savings – at least not yet – Lim sees it as a pilot project for 3D-printed houses. 'After two or three more houses, it'll get faster. Once you amortize the machine cost and the team gains experience, the savings become real.'
The biggest efficiencies come in the elimination of trades. 'You don't need to cut grooves for power points anymore,' he says. 'You just insert a foam block during printing and pop it out later.'
No carpenters, no plasterers, no bricklayers. 'It's cleaner. It's faster. It's just the computer and a guy who programmes it.'
Bedroom windows are deliberately made small to reduce heat gain. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
Sustainable, sensible, striking
Despite its technological ambition, QR3D isn't showy. There's no polished chrome or futuristic gimmickry. Instead, the house embraces a quiet material honesty. The striated concrete surfaces – each layer of the print visible like tree rings – are left unpainted.
That commitment to honesty extends to sustainability. Bedroom windows are small to reduce heat gain. A heat pump water heater cools the upper floor as a byproduct. And floors throughout are laid in a mix of engineered timber, large-format tile, and – in the powder room – repurposed marble fragments scavenged from a stone supplier's scrap pile.
The home doesn't rely on elaborate smart systems either. 'It's minimal,' Lim shrugs. 'We don't need fancy automation. It's about living comfortably, not responding to every trend.'
The space feels broken up and reassembled from multiple angles, never offering a single fixed perspective. PHOTO: DEREK SWALWELL & JOVIAN LIM
If QR3D feels unusually human for a house built by robots, that may be the point. Lim isn't content with technology for its own sake. With QR3D, he set out to prove that 3D printing could serve mainstream architecture, solve real-world problems, and still produce beautiful, meaningful homes.
'It's still early,' he says. 'But I hope 3D-printing becomes a genuine value-engineering option – and not a novelty exercise.'