Print 'em!

In this week's edition of Open House , I shared my thoughts on Smart Cities and their impact on real estate. To read the full editions in your inbox every Thursday, subscribe for free?on my website (https://ashwinderrsingh.com/ ).

Over the decades, the construction of homes and buildings has maintained certain consistent practices while also evolving in various ways. Traditional aspects have remained, but technology has introduced new advancements. One example is AI and Augmented Reality (AR), presenting new ways for developers and buyers to visualise spaces. It's the latest in a whole host of new technologies that have crept into the real estate sector.

But what about the actual construction aspect itself? Here's where the relatively new technique of 3D printing comes in. One relatively new technique is 3D printing. 3D printing a house layer by layer sounds futuristic, but it's not. Developers are using this technology and see great potential in it. Let's dive in.

The basics

Printing can be done on paper, cloth, etc. There's nothing three-dimensional about it. That's not the case with 3D printing, as the name suggests. Simply put, it's a manufacturing process that creates a physical object from a digital design. The process involves laying down thin layers of material like liquid or powdered plastic, metal, or cement and fusing them together.

Car and airline manufacturers use this technology to help create prototypes and mass-produce parts using custom scans. Boeing uses 3D-printed titanium parts in the construction of its 787 Dreamliner aircraft. In 2017, General Electric made a helicopter engine with 16 parts instead of 900 using 3D printing. In medical sciences, 3D printing is used to customise implants. There's even talk of 3D printing organs in the future.

For real estate?

3D printing was previously seen as a novelty or maybe even a gimmick with limited use. But the tide is certainly turning. That's true for housing and the real estate sector at large. In 2017, Deloitte published a report about innovations in real estate and listed 3D printing as one of them.

3D-printed houses are life-size dwellings that use 3D printing as their primary construction method. They typically have free-form, curvilinear shapes made out of a cement mix. For something like a house, a small-scale 3D printer won't do. You need industrial-sized 3D printers.

Once a digital blueprint is finalised, the printer gets to work. A robotic arm zips along a track and follows a pre-programmed set of instructions from the blueprint. Layer by layer, the mixture is built and solidified. This process is repeated once all the building elements are finished.

Companies realised there's something to this 3D printing, and it could be revolutionary. In the US, 3D-printed houses first hit the market in 2021. A 1,407 sq ft home with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a garage for two cars went on sale for $299,999. It was listed as "the world's first 3D-printed home for sale."

That's a luxury that most can't afford. So, companies got wind of the technology and saw an opportunity for affordable housing. It's a topic that many developing countries and some developed ones struggle with. How can we build a lot of affordable homes without breaking the bank? The answer was 3D printing. Here's why:

• It's easier to accurately calculate the material required. Say goodbye to excessive construction waste.
• It's a time saver. Building a house or a large building takes a lot of time. With 3D printing, a house can be built in weeks rather than months using conventional methods.
• Construction can become tedious in some places due to geography or weather. So, why not build the parts at a different location and ship them to the designated place? It makes it more convenient.
• There's one thing that's common to the three above points - saving money. It's perhaps the biggest advantage.

In a country like India, 3D printing can revolutionise affordable housing, and some pilot projects have shown the way. The startup TVASTA created India's first 3D-printed house at IIT Madras. Danish company COBOD partnered with L&T to build a two-storey 3D-printed building in Chennai using a specialised concrete mix.

Speaking of L&T, they're no strangers to 3D-printed projects. They developed a 1,000-square-foot post office facility at Cambridge Layout in Ulsoor, Bengaluru, last year. It took 43 days and cost ?23 lakh. One L&T executive said that while construction costs don't significantly change, labour costs and timelines decrease by 50% and 60%, respectively.

Cautiously optimistic future

3D printing in real estate is still in its infancy. Worldwide, it's at a crossroads. There's potential, but it doesn't come without hurdles. There's a trust gap among builders and engineers who still prefer traditional materials. It's because new composites or modified versions of conventional materials haven't proven their long-term reliability yet.

Construction is also governed by stringent regulations across the world. India is no different. Building codes and standards are designed around traditional methods and materials. That needs to change or evolve if 3D printing has to be widely adopted. As companies progress toward a better future, 3D printing presents an opportunity. If there are consistent positive developments, it could be the norm.