Even Borneo now has its first 3D printed house

But, now even Borneo has its first 3D printed house. In the Northern coastal part of Borneo, which is more urbanized than the rainforest covered center, the large concrete pre-casting company Sarawak Consolidated Industries Berhad (SCIB) recently revealed their first 3D printed demo house in Sarawak.

The house consists of a built area of 1000 sq ft (90 m2), had a total printing time of 46 hours and was 3D printed using the BOD2 3D construction printer from Danish based COBOD International. The total length of the print was over 9 km that were extruded layer by layer on top of each other in a total of 145 layers each of 2 cm height. The SCIB team chose to plaster the outside walls of the house, which is normal practice in the region due to high humidity weather conditions. Also, plastering makes it easy to wash and clean when green algae grow on the walls which occurs due to the climate conditions.

The 3D construction printer SCIB used was supplied by market leader COBOD International, who’s printers have proven their worth around the globe from India, over Middle East, Africa and Europe, to North America, where COBOD 3D printers recently were used in two story buildings in Texas and Ontario.

Simon Klint Bergh, Head of Asia-Pacific for COBOD and located at COBOD’s regional office in Kuala Lumpur said: “When we created COBOD, we never envisaged, that we would have a market in a place like Borneo. The fact that our technology is now applied there shows, that the market for our technology is endless. When we can sell our printers in Borneo, we can sell them anywhere”.

The new 3D printed house in Borneo is located on the premises of the Malaysian Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB), which is the permitting body in Malaysia, at their training arm premises Malaysian Construction Academy (ABM) in Kuching, Sarawak (Malaysia) and was built in collaboration with the agency.

Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of SCIB, Rosland Othman, said: “The use of technology such as 3D printing comes at a time when businesses are being scrutinized for the impact of their operations on the environment and society. Businesses have an important role in society and an important part is to operate responsibly. We believe 3D construction printing can be part of this and therefore we are also involved in a program with our university partner to develop and improve the skills and knowledge of the construction industry.”

Simon Klint Bergh concluded: “At COBOD International we are proud to have SCIB as our customer and to see them execute a first building. SCIB is a very innovative company and with our technology, we are excited to see SCIB enable faster execution of construction projects, as well as more efficient construction at a lower cost. This will be the first of many 3D printed houses to come in Asia- Pacific”.