Last September, Danish 3D printer reseller 3D Printhuset broke ground on the first European 3D printed house in Copenhagen. Just two months later the structure, including the foundation, is almost complete. The initial 3D printing of Europe’s first 3D printed building, the 3D Printhuset Bod, has been extensively covered by Danish as well as international media. Several Danish TV and radio channels were on site to cover the event live, and their footage was later used by the international media. 3D construction printing represents a clear disruption of the construction sector, which has remained virtually unchanged by the digital revolution happening elsewhere.

3D Printhuset used AMT-Specavia‘s equipment to 3D print the building. The printed office hotel in Copenhagen will have an area of ​​50 square meters. The site is located in the port area of ​​the city, close to the marinas and cruise liners, so that incoming tourist can admire the first building printed in Europe.

Other attempts to print structures were made in the European Union and earlier. But the peculiarity of the Danish project is that the presented building is the first building in Europe built by the method of construction 3D printing and fully meets the strict rules and standards of the European Union. In the future, the Danish entrepreneurs intend to provide construction services for printing small buildings in the Building on Demand (BOD) format not only in Denmark but also in other European countries.

For printing, the Danish company used the S-6044 Long printer manufactured in Russia. This model is a portal type with a working field of 8 x 8 x 6 meters. The printer prints standard compositions based on M 300-500 cement, i.e. That is on sale practically everywhere. Printing is done with layers of 20 mm high and a width of 50 to 70 mm with a new generation print head, which significantly increased the printer’s performance and the quality of the printed surfaces.

The inspiration came from 3D Printhuset’s participation in the Danish government-funded project “3D Construction Printing”, during which the company together with a. o. NCC Construction, Force Institute and Gypsum Recycling visited more than 35 3D construction printing projects worldwide.

After having made all these visits to foreign projects and hosting a conference on 3D Construction Printing in February 28 with 160 participants, the partners concluded that the best possible way to promote the use of 3D print technology in the European construction industry would be to demonstrate that 3D printing a building in Europe would indeed be possible, and the strict European building codes could still be fulfilled. 3D Printhuset took on the challenge.

Then the process began of identifying the site to print on and develop a concrete printer to European norms. Materials testing and experimenting with concrete mixtures were carried out to find the ideal formulation for 3D Construction Printing. Finally, the firms had to get the proposed building approved, establish pilotage underneath the site, lay the base foundation upon which to print the building on, and put up a tent above it for the 3D construction printer.