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In the future, building skyscrapers could be as easy as playing with Lego – albeit on a much larger scale, Quartz comments.
The Singapore government is investing S$150 million (about US$100 million) in the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing at Nanyang Technological University to experiment with large-scale 3D printing of concrete bricks.
According to the online publication 3DPrint, the school is trying to construct new printers that can create similar bricks.
“There are very big challenges in the housing sector,” the center’s director, Chua Chee Kai, told 3DPrint. “There is no support for 3D printers and there is no concrete to use for printing. We have to start all over again.”
According to Chua, the goal will be to create printable, interlocking bricks that can be made anywhere, delivered to a construction site, and assembled on site, similar to Lego. The school’s newest dorms are actually built with interlocking bricks, 3DPrint points out, but they were created using traditional methods, not 3D printing.
3D printing is widely considered to have the potential to usher in a “new era in manufacturing.” There have been some recent successes in 3D printing concrete, as well as printing entire buildings, but until this method becomes cheaper or more efficient than traditional manufacturing techniques, there’s really no reason to use it.
However, according to GovInsider, Singapore’s population is aging and the country relies heavily on migrant workers to solve its major construction problems. However, 3D printing could offer a solution to the workforce problems by effectively building the new housing needed.
Source: http://www.investor.bg/
