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The Guardian
08-03-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
See how Australia's first 3D-printed multi-storey house is being built: four bedrooms in five weeks
In a quiet street in the western Melbourne suburb of Wyndham, a house is being built. The slab has been laid, the frame is being printed. Almost silently, cement piping that looks like a soft serve is methodically poured by a giant robotic crane. This will be Australia's first 3D multi-storey house. 'I'm going to live in it personally,' says Ahmed Mahil, the CEO of Luyten, the Melbourne-based company that is printing the house. 'I'm not just selling it to people, I actually trust the science behind it.' At the heart of Australia's housing crisis lies a central issue: there are not enough homes. Also, over the past 15 years, we've become slower at building them. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email The average build time for standalone houses has slid from nine months to 12.7 months (a 40% increase), while apartment construction timelines have blown out from 18.5 months to 33.3 months, Master Builders Association data shows. Mahil says he is about to move into the answer to that problem. 3D printing shaves huge chunks of months off a build. Mahil's house, which will have four bedrooms and five toilets, will be completed within five weeks. 'The printing itself is about three weeks, and then to put the roof and the lighting and all the other services, that will take us about five weeks,' he says. 'Then I can move and live inside it.' While there has been no Australian research into the cost differences between traditional brick and mortar builds and 3D ones, Mahil says he got comparative quotes for his house. 'I have three quotations, and the best of them, [3D printing] comes cheaper at 25% to 30% [than traditional builds],' he says. Mahil did not tell Guardian Australia how much it is costing to print his home. Australia's first 3D-printed home – a one-bedroom in New South Wales that was completed in May 2023, took just two days to construct. Overseas, entire suburbs are being printed and built. Last year, in Wolf Ranch, a suburb in Georgetown, Texas, 100 homes were printed. Governments are warming to the idea. In NSW, the Dubbo 3D-printed social housing project – two modern two-bedroom duplexes – is about to be completed. Starting late last year, it took about two weeks to finish construction of all internal and external walls. Indigenous tenants are expected to move in to the building by the end of March. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Guardian Australia understands the Dubbo project will cost the government $814,000, and is estimated to cost 10-20% less than a traditional build. The NSW housing minister, Rose Jackson, says her government opted for 3D printing because it wants to deliver more houses, more quickly. She calls 3D-printed houses 'a gamechanger'. 'It's faster to construct, cheaper to build, and more environmentally-friendly than traditional construction methods because it cuts down on material waste,' she says. There are also lower environmental impacts. Two weeks ago, a study published in the Journal of Building Engineering, looking at the environmental impact of a build in Canada, found the technology has the potential 'to support sustainable and efficient construction, particularly in remote locations'. 'However, material consumption and transportation remain significant contributors to environmental impact,' it said. Property developer Kavitha Vipulananda is now completing her PhD in housing at the University of Melbourne. She says there are environmental benefits with 3D-printing homes – but other issues are also in play. 3D printing homes in urban environments and the middle ring suburbs that sit just outside the CBD and inner-city neighbourhoods is 'a bit tricky', Vipulananda says, pointing to the size and manoeuvrability of the 3D printer. 'You can only really do houses at the moment.' Banks are also reluctant, for now, to fund developers to 3D print homes because it is a new technology, she says. Prospective customers are also limited in the design options to choose from. 'It just needs to be more flexible on sites and more flexible for consumers.' Michael Fotheringham, the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute managing director, says 3D printing could help the federal government meet its target of 1.2m homes in five years, but there are a lot of unknowns. 'We're really early days with this stuff in terms of actually delivering housing,' Fotheringham says. 'I think we're really more at a demonstrating potential than delivering in any mainstream sense.' Fotheringham says more research is needed on the insulation and energy efficacy of the builds. 'We need to make sure that we're building housing that is suitable for our climate … and energy efficient going forward,' he says. While alternate building strategies are worth exploring, Fotheringham says governments should concentrate on more high-density housing close to the CBD. '3D printing probably plays a role in that infield development quite effectively,' he says, 'because of its pace of delivery, it's less disruption to communities.'
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amidst housing crisis, Australia's first 3D-Printed, multi-storey home is underway in Melbourne
A multi-storey, liveable home in suburbia printed with AI powered 3D construction technology will be the first of its kind in the southern hemisphere, with every aspect of the project home-grown in Sydney and Melbourne. MELBOURNE, Australia, Feb. 11, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- In Melbourne's outer suburbs, a giant robotic crane 3D printer towers over a concrete house being built. The robotic crane 3D printer is an unusual sight in a quiet residential street in Melbourne, Victoria. But it's no ordinary crane, it's LUYTEN's cutting-edge PLATYPUS X12 Crane 3D Construction Printer. It is AI powered and is making history by 3D home printing the first multi-storey house in Australia and Southern Hemisphere. While previous attempts of using this technology were limited to single storey, standard home prototypes printed in 20-24 degrees Celsius weather conditions, this house started printing during a Melbourne summer in 35-42 degrees Celsius heat and frequent storms. The house design was optimised to introduce features to push 3D printing potential to the limit, such as printing a lift core, and walls with shapes that serve as noise cancelling using the acoustic principle of diffraction. The AI powered printer uses re-enforced-learning algorithms to help ensure the quality of each layer of the print because the concrete layers are not just about aesthetics, it is structural -- and the AI software ensures precision construction. The multi-story, 350 m2 home will be lived in, by Ahmed Mahil, the CEO and Global President of LUYTEN. "As the first CEO to live in a 3D printed house, printed by his own company and own company's manufactured robots, I intend to break the psychological barrier people may have and to smash any doubts in the industry about the future of 3D printed homes," said Mr Mahil. 3D printing can help deliver faster homes. LUYTEN's multi-storey home is expected to be finished in 5 weeks, compared to the usual 8-11 months for a build. 3D printing is emerging as an innovative solution to Australia's housing crisis, and it's capturing the attention of the Federal and State governments. "We've had positive feedback and support from State and Federal governments and late last year we had the Minister for Industry and Science, Hon Ed Husic, visit our 3D construction printer robot factory in Melbourne," said Mr Mahil LUYTEN are also proud to be working alongside renowned international engineering firm Bollinger + Grohmann on the certification of the groundbreaking home ensuring structural integrity, safety, and optimal performance of the printed structure. LUYTEN is also collaborating with the University of New South Wales ARC Centre for Next-Gen Architectural Manufacturing's research and design expertise for the design of the home. By combining their strengths, the group will be setting a new standard for 3D printed homes. About LUYTEN: LUYTEN's cutting edge 3D printer technology enables builders to transform construction projects that would traditionally take months or years to complete and instead finish them within a number of days. The 3D concrete printing revolutionary technology enables 60 percent reduction of construction waste, 70 percent reduction of production time, and 80 percent reduction of labour costs when compared to hands-on construction projects. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Luyten 3D Sign in to access your portfolio
