Most business-owners are well-aware that the high cost of producing is largely a function of the cost of labor. This is true, of course, for the construction industry, among many others. Fortunately, 3D printing is providing a very plausible mechanism to replace human labor in a range of industries, not limited to construction.

3D printing in the construction industry’s benefits are not limited to just business-owners, either. It has the potential to allow for the quick and affordable creation of housing, which can prove beneficial for those without the means to afford a house using conventional construction. Today, we are going to look at projects which have utilized 3D printing to construct some truly impressive structures.

Chinese company WinSun has previously built 10 one-story houses in a one-day period, an impressive feat for anyone who has grown up during the creation of a suburban development, where houses take about 7 months to complete.

WinSun Decoration Design Engineering built the houses in Shanghai using four giant 3D printers, which are each 10 meters (33 feet) wide and 6.6 meters (22 feet) high, according to Chinese news agency Xinhua. They produce a mix of cement and construction waste to construct the walls layer by layer, a process much like how a baker might ice a cake.

“We purchased parts for the printer overseas, and assembled the machine in a factory in Suzhou,” WinSun CEO Ma Yihe told the International Business Times. “Such a new type of 3D-printed structure is environment-friendly and cost-effective.”

Each approximately 2,100 square-foot building costs less than $5,000 to construct. The houses’ components are checked for quality as they are being erected because there are no building codes yet for 3D-printing construction in China. WinSun uses a special quick-dry cement to speed up the process. Chinese Company Builds Houses Quickly With 3D Printing

Printing several small homes is not WinSun’s only accomplishment in 3D printing buildings. More recently, the company has used its process to build a 6 story structure made largely of recycled construction material. Such developments seem particularly appealing for BRICS countries, which must work to sustain high levels of growth.

Shanghai-based Winsun has been showing off the two neighboring projects, one an 1100-square-meter villa, the other a 6-story residential block, in the Chinese city of Suzhou. The residential block is the world’s tallest 3D-printed building, according to the company.

It took Winsun a day to print out one level of the residential block, and then five more to put the level together. As for the villa, both the interior and exterior of the home were created using the company’s 3D printing tech. (More pictures can be found here.)

Winsun is promoting the printers as an environmentally friendly technology, given that the ink can be made from recycled building materials. These buildings were created with a 3D printer | PCWorld

Win Sun is not the only company using 3D printing for construction. Also in the race is D-Shape, which has similarly designed a 3D printer capable of building houses. D-Shape and its founder, Enrico Dini, were recently featured by Audi on its “Map of Greatness.”

Audi Feat. House 3D Printing Inventor - 3D Printing Industry As an innovator of house 3D printing, Dini has sacrificed a lot in his life in the pursuit of a sustainable, large-scale 3D printer. The resulting D-Shape printer has a 6m by 6m aluminum frame with 300 nozzles used to bind a mixture of sand and magnesium oxide into a solid shape, layer by layer. This printing process is purported to be a sustainable method for building large structures, as it can rely on naturally occurring materials like sand found in the immediate environment of a construction site. In 2009, the D-Shape system was used to fabricate the world’s largest 3D printed sculpture, at that time: a 3m x 3m x 3m tall pavilion called Radiolaria.

Currently, Dini is at work experimenting with the European Space Agency on how his technology may be useful to print structures on the Moon using moon-dust. His technology is also being used in New York to create a full house.

New York City architect/contractor Adam Kushner begins construction of the first ever 3D printed estate, which features a 3D printed swimming pool, 4-bedroom, 2400 square foot home, and more. The 3D printer which will be a modified version of Enrico Dini’s D-shape printer, will, if all goes as planned, eventually be able to automatically place rebar within the 3D printed house, as it prints.

“About a year and a half ago, I started to become immersed in 3D printing,” Adam Kushner told 3DPrint.com. “I said, ‘OK, who’s doing this on the construction level?’ That is where I see the future. I don’t care about the toys or the games or the little things people are doing on their desktops. What I really saw, was the bigger potential for 3D printers in the construction industry. That is a trillion dollar business, and it changes the paradigm of how we build.” First Entirely 3D Printed Estate is Coming to NY, Including a 3D Printed 2400 Sqft House, Pool & More - 3DPrint.com

At the end of the day, everyone wants to be king of their own castle, and 3D printing may provide a more economical way of accomplishing this:

A building contractor living in Minnesota has developed his own 3D printer which can print concrete directly from CAD design software, and he has used it to 3D-print a castle in his back garden.

The race to produce 3D printers that can print buildings continues as, in theory, the technology could bring affordable housing to people in developing countries and revolutionise the construction industry. Man 3D-Prints Castle In Back Garden Using Concrete Printer He Invented

And the Minnesotan, Andrey Rudenko, is not limiting his sights to 3D printed castles for children (and perhaps cement would not be the best material for such a task!). He says his process can develop more impressive housing structures than made by WinSun, and is looking to achieve that goal.

“A cheap house built in 24 hours is not my goal. As an experienced builder, I know that to avoid problems in the future, it is more important to produce homes of a good quality, which may take longer to build than cheaper homes made quickly,” Rudenko said.

“It would be more beneficial to print a complete home, including the foundation for the staircase, fireplace, certain furniture (kitchen island etc), columns, interior walls, and any wiring or plumbing that would fit inside the printed walls.”

He has also designed his 3D printer to print the concrete at such a high viscosity that the printed walls can act as a decorative element, as opposed to the Chinese homes, which had quite rough-looking jagged edges, and would require sheetrock (dry wall) to be added on top before they would be habitable.