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Text: James Woodcock
AM in construction has spent a long time promising more than it delivers. Photogenic single-storey demonstration homes and record-breaking ‘24-hour prints’ have generated headlines without always generating confidence that the technology can work at real-world scale (or indeed to real-world budgets). ViliaSprint² in Bezannes, France makes a more compelling case.
The three-storey, 12-unit social housing building was developed by Plurial Novilia and printed by PERI 3D Construction using a COBOD BOD2 gantry system. What makes it more than just a size record is the direct comparison built into the project itself: Plurial Novilia constructed a near-identical building on the same plot using conventional methods. The load-bearing 3D printed building’s walls were completed in three months, against six for the traditional build, with three operators replacing the usual crew of six.
The extruded concrete was Holcim’s TectorPrint, developed at the company’s Innovation Center in Lyon and reinforced with synthetic macro-fibres rather than traditional steel reinforcement, which delivered a 30% CO₂ reduction versus equivalent standard concrete. The building meets France’s RE2020 2025 energy threshold and provides another milestone in the search for 3D printing as a serious construction technology.
