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In recent decades, construction through 3D printing has been widely developed. Additive manufacturing enables construction companies to build at an unprecedented speed, while minimizing waste and labor. In addition, compared with traditional methods, the construction cost is significantly reduced due to the use of 3D printing. This technology also enables designers to create impressive complex geometric and architectural designs that would otherwise be impossible to achieve. Therefore, it is not surprising that 3D printing in the construction field is expected to achieve large-scale growth - in fact, it is expected to reach 114.4 million dollars by 2023. Take advantage of the efficiency, low cost and durability she provides,

3D printing and housing crisis According to the 2020 report on poor housing in France produced by the Abb é Pierre Foundation, there are currently 4 million people living in poor housing conditions, either deprived of housing or in very difficult housing conditions. It says: "Four million people have poor housing conditions or lack of personal housing. In addition to these * serious situations, there are 12.1 million people affected by the housing crisis to varying degrees. In general, without double counting, nearly 15 million people are affected by the housing crisis in one way or another. The worrying statistics have not declined since the COVID-19 crisis. In the face of these challenges, 3D printing can play a role.

Recognizing these problems, ICON and other companies try to find innovative solutions through additive manufacturing technology. 3D printing not only provides faster and cheaper construction potential, but also reduces the manpower required. For Jason Ballard, the co-founder of ICON, the potential of additive manufacturing methods in this field is often overlooked. He explained: "The traditional construction method has many shortcomings and inherent problems, which we have taken for granted for a long time, so that we forget how to imagine alternatives. Jason Ballard explained that this is where 3D printing can be used." With 3D printing, you not only have continuous thermal envelopes, high thermal quality and near zero waste rate, but also have speed, a broader design palette, "next level elasticity" and the possibility of achieving a huge leap in accessibility. Not 10%, but 10 times better ".

The "leap" in accessibility described by Jason Ballard is no exaggeration. HomeAdvisor estimates that the average cost of building a house (through traditional methods) is between $154273 and $478200. On the other hand, the ICON plan costs only 4000 US dollars, more than 100 times lower than the high price range estimated by HomeAdvisor. Some companies do not take advantage of this situation, but use additive manufacturing technology for humanitarian purposes.

For example, ICON established Community First! Town. A community that provides permanent and affordable housing for people with housing problems. The community consists of a 46 square meter 3D printing "Welcome Center" and three 37 square meter houses. Each 3D printing house is one after another, forming six houses for the residents of the community. Each house has a bedroom, a bathroom, a living room, a bathroom and a porch. According to ICON, its Lavacre 3D printing technology can build structures that can withstand fire, flood and other natural disasters, which have always been the cause of house destruction in many parts of the United States.

Therefore, these houses are not only potential solutions to house losses after natural disasters, but also preventive measures against new housing problems. Community * Village! At present, it is the only similar product created by Mobile Loves&Fishes, a non-profit organization in the United States. It paves the way for other projects. In fact, last year, American concrete experts QUIKRETE and Contour Cracking Corporation announced that they would work together to build houses for the homeless in Los Angeles.

ICON's activities are not limited to the United States. As pointed out by the company itself, three key problems have emerged in housing around the world: *, a person with an average wage cannot afford a house; Secondly, building houses is not sustainable and inefficient, which will produce a lot of garbage* Later, more than one billion people in the world did not have enough housing. In 2019, ICON, New Story and ECHALE unveiled * 3D printing communities in Tabasco, Mexico. The community consists of 50 houses, each of which was donated to a local family, who previously lived in a temporary shelter of extreme poverty and insecurity. Each room is 46 square meters, and 3D printing was carried out within 24 hours in a few days using ICON's robot technology, software and advanced materials.

The role of 3D printing in the construction of schools and social infrastructure Other companies, such as Thinking Huts and 14Trees, also use 3D printing for humanitarian purposes and build social infrastructure in areas lacking funds and resources, including schools. For 14Trees, additive manufacturing is a solution to solve the backlog of more than 36000 classrooms in Malawi. If the current construction method is used, it will take more than 70 years. The company commented: "We have to change the way we build so that every child of this generation can go to school. 3D printing for buildings is a great opportunity to speed up the construction time, reduce the total cost of these buildings and reduce the carbon footprint. This applies to schools, as well as families and any social infrastructure (such as clinics) 。 In Malawi, we have proved that compared with traditional methods, we can print the walls of houses in less than 12 hours, while reducing the carbon footprint by up to 70%. "

Brett Hagler, CEO of New Story, also said: "We believe that it is our responsibility to challenge traditional ways. These will never benefit the billion people who need a safe home. Challenging our assumptions, data-driven iterations, and the calculation risk of innovative ideas will enable us to provide * good solutions for more families at an exponential and faster speed." As a construction method to realize the social infrastructure required by many people around the world, 3D printing occupies a unique position.

What obstacles does technology face? As a social problem rather than an actual problem in essence, the housing crisis cannot be solved by separate construction, attachment or other means. Maggie Grout, founder of Thinking Huts, said, "* The big challenge is funding, especially because we want to apply this high growth technology to humanitarian goals." Alexandria Lafci, the chief operating officer of New Story, also has this view, She said: "The speed of mobile devices entering Africa is very slow, because the company focuses on the market with higher profits. But look at the impact of mobile phones on the economy and livelihood of the entire African continent. We are not waiting for the power of profits to bring construction progress to the South, but accelerating innovation, such as 3D printing of houses, which can be a powerful tool to end homelessness.

3D printing for buildings, although it is undoubtedly an innovative and effective way to solve the problems related to the lack of social infrastructure, especially the housing and education crisis, needs funds and support first. At present, the additive manufacturing method in the construction field is far from complete, and some parts of the school cannot be 3D printed, so this is especially true. These parts include roofs, doors and windows. Thinking Huts plans to make them entirely from local materials. However, with the support of humanitarian focused construction, 3D printing may completely change the daily life of communities around the world.

At present, more than 260 million children do not have access to education. This number has only increased since the beginning of the pandemic, which itself is the cause of the displacement of more than 1 billion children worldwide. When we asked Maggie Grout to describe the enterprise she founded, she explained that Thinking Huts is "a non-profit organization that aims to improve global education opportunities through solutions, innovation and humanitarian technology. We are seeking to use additive manufacturing to build 3D printing schools with * communities that need them."

Starting from a site in Madagascar, Thinking Huts plans to open * 3D printing schools later this year, and plans to open three more schools. The organization even hopes to one day expand its activities to Zimbabwe, Malawi, Pakistan, India and South Africa. Although the core goal of the Thinking Huts project is to expand access to education, the company is also seeking to "find ways to build synergies between technology and local communities". Maggie Grout hopes to hire local labor and participate in the economic activities of developing communities, and support technology transfer, which echoes the comments of Lafci, the chief operating officer of New Story, on the impact of mobile phones on communities. African economy.

Similarly, when we asked Fran, CEO of 14Trees? When ois Perrot asked about the potential role of architectural 3D printing in addressing the housing and education crisis, He replied: "3D printing for architecture is an excellent solution to solve the housing and education crisis. What is important is that all the components needed for printing, from the ink used to the robot control team, are found locally in the countries/regions where we are trying to solve these crises. This is what we started to do. We cooperated with LafargeHolcim countries to produce 3D printing ink as close to our printing as possible, creating in the entire value chain Employment opportunities and introduce this technology to the local population. We saw an overwhelming positive response! ".

The second obstacle pointed out by these organizations is the lack of knowledge and awareness of 3D printing technology in the construction industry. Maggie Grout found that "3D printing is still strange in the construction industry. It is generally believed that 3D printing is only used for the scale of offices, which allows the creation of plastic objects. For some people, it may be difficult to visualize 3D printing on the scale of buildings. For Fran ç ois Perot, "3D printing for buildings is still an emerging technology, and we have to face many challenges, such as setting up a work site, preparing ink or designing a house that is easy to print."

By working with LafargeHolcim Innovation Center and its technology partner COBOD, 14Trees can meet these challenges alone. According to Fran? According to ois Perrot, "3D printing requires excellent performance from architectural design to delivery, and it is precisely this kind of excellent execution that we are building and demonstrating our project. Obviously, although this technology has achieved a certain degree of success, it still needs further research and development if it is to have a broad impact in humanitarian assistance.

The use of 3D printing in architecture has great potential for how to develop humanitarian projects, especially in solving the housing and education crisis. The technology also provides considerable advantages in terms of cost, durability and durability. However, to expand its scope of use, some measures need to be taken. To make this technology truly significant, it needs money, influence, research and development, and time.

Keywords: 3D printing, housing, humanitarian