WinSun 3D Prints Build Garden Villas in Suzhou Within One Week

Shanghai-based WinSun, an engineering and architecture firm, has recently 3D printed garden villas as a part of an initiative to promote low-carbon construction.

WinSun garnered mainstream media coverage and attraction in early 2015 when it became the first company in the industry to utilize the 3D printing technology to build multi-story houses. In January of 2015, 3DPrint.com reported that WinSun built 10 homes almost entirely with 3D printers using recycled concrete material as the primarily filament.

Since then, WinSun has continued to promote the use of clean and recycled materials to build robust houses and interior infrastructures in real estate and construction industries.

This week, WinSun announced the completion of 3D printed garden villas in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, one of the richest and cleanest cities in China that is home to the country’s most respected executives, CEOs and investors. A villa on display at Suzhou Industrial Park, targeted toward luxury buyers, is an 1,100-square-meter construction with a 3D printing/construction cost of slightly more than 1 million yuan (around US$147,900).

Ma Yihe, the CEO of Shanghai WinSun Decoration Design Engineering, stated that it took less than a week for a team of three employees to 3D print commercial villas available for sale. Similar to its project in 2015, WinSun utilized recycled massive construction waste once again, which helped build a robust foundation for the villas.

“All the printing materials are from construction or industrial waste,” Ma said. “What we do is turn the waste to our advantage. Besides that, the new technology doesn’t produce any more waste. The whole process has played a role in improving the environment.”

Two aspects of WinSun’s 3D printing-based construction models that are truly revolutionizing global construction and real estate markets are the company’s ability to build full-size commercially available house within a matter of days and utilizing recycled waste as core material.

According to the United States Census Bureau, houses and villas in the the US with over 2 units take an average time of 9.3 months to complete. In 1971, the average start to completion time for commercial houses was estimated to be 5.9 months. In 2015, the US Census Bureau stated that over 9 months is needed and recommended to construction companies to ensure the build quality of houses.

WinSun’s 3D printing method, which enables the company to create villas with multiple units and stories within 7 days, are nearly 33 times faster and more efficient than average US construction methods. If WinSun’s methods are distributed in the Chinese construction industry as a standard for all construction companies, the Chinese real estate market will develop at an unprecedented rate compared to that of other leading economies like the US.

Over the past 12 months, WinSun has already secured major contracts with leading companies and government agencies in China. Thus, it is highly likely that WinSun’s 3D printing-based construction method will be utilized by an increasing number of companies in the upcoming months. 

“3D printing technology is a revolution in the real estate industry,” said Chen Sheng, president of China Real Estate Data Academy. “In the future, furniture and houses can be custom-built to suit people’s own requirements.”

The Chinese government and other major conglomerates are attracted to the recycled material-based 3D printing technique of WinSun that allows construction companies to save a significant amount of money that is used in both purchasing new materials and disposing construction waste.

China is widely known as one of the most polluted countries in the world. A part of that originates from the fact that China became the largest waste generator in 2004, passing the US in that year, and is projected to produce twice as much solid waste as the US by 2030.

[Photo: China Business News]

“All the printing materials are from construction or industrial waste,” said Ma. “What we do is turn the waste to our advantage. Besides that, the new technology doesn’t produce any more waste. The whole process has played a role in improving the environment.”

Currently, WinSun is envisioning a global expansion with contracts and strategic partnerships in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Morocco, Tunisia and the United States. The company secured all of these international partnerships within three years since they began to experiment with the 3D printing technology.

Considering rapid growth of WinSun as a commercial company and growing distribution of WinSun’s innovative and environment-friendly 3D printing methods, many agencies and experts predict that the global construction ecosystem and real estate industries will experience huge changes in the near future. Discuss in the 3D Printed Garden Villas forum at 3DPB.com.