VIDEO: Dubai unveils world's largest 3D printed two-storey structure

Guinness Book of World Records recognizes Dubai Municipality for completing the largest 3D printed two-storey structure in the world.

The achievement is in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to construct 25% of the buildings in Dubai with 3D printing technology by 2030.

The building is a 3D printed technology two-storey integrated building. It has a height of 9.5 meters, with a total area of 640 square meters.

It is the largest and first 3D printed two-storey structure in the world executed by undertaking 3D printing onsite directly under external working conditions and using local components.

Dawoud Al Hajri, Director General of Dubai Municipality said: “This project is a major turning point in the construction sector at the local and regional levels and is based on the strategy of innovation in 3D printing technologies in construction, which in turn will increase the pace and speed of execution and completion of buildings in record time, and reduce construction costs and contribute to the development of solutions to the demographics challenges by reducing the number of construction labor.”

“It will also support the Emirate's sustainability trends using local materials and reduce construction waste, where printing is done electronically according to engineering plans directly without human intervention,” he added.

Al Hajri noted that the national cadre and the Municipality team were instrumental in this achievement as the in-house consultative body that supervised the completion of the project at all stages, which is the 3D printing team from the Building Permits Department, and no external consultant was hired.

“The Municipality had equipped itself with all the facilities to deal with modern technology in the construction field that achieves Dubai's 3D printing strategy, with the aim of making Dubai a global capital for 3D printing technology,” he pointed out.

“The two-storey building has been designed and executed with a number of spaces that can be used as rooms or offices of different sizes. The walls are printed directly from the printer, unlike the traditional method of construction, which depends on the work of tightening wooden pieces with nuts and bolts, reinforcement and pouring of concrete and making bricks. The building has been designed with different curves and shapes through which it was tested whether it can be possible for 3D printing in the construction of a variety of designs,” said Al Hajri.

Aside being the first 3D two-storey building. While the construction was going on the Municipality team carried out a lot of test and experiments on the mixes of materials used in printing. That was done in order to ensure it is of good quality and durable for construction.

Materials used for the mixture were locally sourced. Therefore, the mix will be intellectual Property of Dubai Municipality as the holder of the rights of this mixture and the possibility of using it morally, commercially and industrially at the regional level in the future.

The building is in-line with sustainability requirements and green building standards.

It features efficient insulation systems through innovative geometrical wall printing and increases the possibility of utilizing voids inside the wall, which mainly helps the thermal insulation of the building and reduce energy consumption, in addition to developing solutions to connect services within the printed walls, which includes all services to the building such as electricity, water, communications, air conditioning and IT technologies.