India’s first 3D printed house by IIT-M startup inaugurated

28 Apr 2021 CW Team

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurated India's first 3D printed house developed by IIT-Madras startup Tvasta.

With a built-up area of 600 sq ft, the house has a bedroom, a hall and a kitchen. The entire house was designed using software and printed using concrete 3D printing technology.

A new house can be built in five days using this technology against four or five months in conventional mode. It is estimated that the cost of a house will be reduced by around 30%, and the life of buildings can exceed 50 years.

Concrete 3D printing is an automated manufacturing method for constructing three-dimensional real-life structures. The technique utilises a concrete 3D printer that accepts a computerised three-dimensional design file from the user and fabricates a 3D structure in a layer-by-layer manner by extruding a specialised type of concrete specifically designed for the purpose.

While inaugurating the first 3D printed house virtually, Sitharaman said that considering the government's housing for all scheme by 2022, India needs such solutions that do not require much time. The Finance Minister further said the technology can reduce the challenge of building 100 million houses by 2022.

According to IIT-Madras Director Bhaskar Ramamurth, the machine for constructing this house can be rented, like borewells rented by farmers. It provides for large-scale, high quality and also, price assurance for the customers, said Ramamurth. Adithya VS, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Tvasta, said the technology can enable deep personalisation of construction for the individual.

Besides offering housing, it can also solve problems like sanitation, disaster-time rehabilitation, and projects to construct military bunkers, among others.

Tvatsa developed the house in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity's Terwilliger Centre for Innovation in Shelter.

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