A new way to build homes

3-D printed buidings in Suzhou Industrial Park. Photo provided to China Daily

3-D printing could revolutionize building a house by making the process cheaper and more customizable.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, Jiang Shaofeng polishes a gypsum window frame in the open air of a factory in Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu province. He uses a yellow, gluey material to fix the small holes and cracks on the surface of the frame.

The window frame was produced by Yingchuang New Materials (Suzhou) using 3-D printing technology. After it's polished, the surface of the frame will be as shiny as the body of a brand new car, Jiang says. The part will be shipped to Dubai for a customer to examine.

Jiang points to two buildings that were constructed using materials made with 3-D printing. The walls, roofs, window frames and other decorations were all made using the technology.

Standing in front of the buildings, it's difficult to tell whether they were made using 3-D technology or traditional construction methods. The facade had been painted and decorated.

But when you take a closer look at the walls, you can tell by the texture of the gray concrete that it was formed using 3-D printing. It looked like the growth rings of an old tree, but straightened and stretched.

Beside the villa is a five-story building with a sign hanging from the top that reads: "The highest 3-D-printed building in the world." Jiang says it took eight workers one month to complete the building.

Zheng Jian, general manager of the factory, was busy showing another group of visitors around the facility. Since the end of December when they first presented the two buildings to the public, the factory has hosted visitors from around the country.

There were also smaller 3-D-printed houses on display, and the bare walls made the growth-ring-like texture of the concrete easy to see. "It is one of our core technologies," Zheng says.

"We added special ingredients into common concrete so that the printed additive material can quickly solidify. We can print one storey in a day and spend another day curing. Without the speed, 3-D printing technology, also known as rapid prototyping, will lose its significance," he says.

Winsun Global, the mother company of Yingchuang New Materials, is based in Shanghai, and began as a construction materials production company.