The largest 3D printed building in Europe is a data center and is in Germany: this is The Wave House

 

The Wave House is located in the city of Heidelberg

The walls were printed at a speed of 4 square meters per hour

The building will house a data center for the IT company Heidelberg

It is amazing to see the evolution of construction techniques. We live in a world where there are entire cities that are being built in record time thanks to the benefits of 3D printing. And everything seems to indicate that this is just the beginning. In the city of Heidelberg, in Germany, there is a new structure that attracts the attention of residents due to its peculiar design and, above all, because its most important part was erected in less than a week.

This is The Wave House, the largest 3D printed building in Europe. As we can see in the images, the work stands out for its undulating walls inspired by the waves of the sea (and for which it receives its name). COBOD International explains that such a feature could not have been realized using conventional building systems. Instead, a printer that they manufacture, BOD2, has been used, which is more suitable for this type of project.

Constructing a building in record time

The building, measuring almost 600 square meters, is 54 meters long, 11 meters wide and 9 meters high. Amazingly, its walls went up in just 140 hours, with a printing efficiency rate of 4 square meters per hour. KRAUSGRUPPE, another of the firms involved in the project, points out that the initiative was carried out using 3D printed concrete, “which is 100% recyclable as a mineral construction material.”

If at any time it is decided to “dismantle” the building, the techniques used will facilitate the separation of the materials into sand, gravel and cement brick to promote the “circular economy”. Among the advantages of this type of construction, the aforementioned firm highlights the reduced construction costs. Although they do not provide figures (we do not know how much it cost), they say that 3D printing has made the project economically viable.

The essence of The Wave House also responds to the need to install data centers in urban areas to be closer to users. These computing facilities generally lack design elements consistent with cities. This 3D printed building aims to house part of the infrastructure of local cloud provider IT Heidelberg, which will have around 100 racks, in a visually pleasing building.

The Wave House is presented as another example of the evolution of 3D printing. 3D printers are already capable of printing walls and erecting large structures in a matter of days. In addition, it provides new possibilities at the design level. However, as this alternative is taking its first steps, its access is not yet widespread, so printing large structures in 3D is still not within everyone's reach.