Property developer Jiayuan International Group is plenty successful already, with an impressive portfolio of property development projects covering approximately 2.6 million square meters across China’s Jiangsu Province. The company specializes in both residential and commercial complexes, for which they’ve won numerous awards over the course of the last several years. Jiayuan International is looking to further improve their business, however, and what better way to do that than to begin incorporating 3D printing into their construction methods?
Rather than rushing into a new technology, Jiayuan International is starting slowly, via a partnership with WinSun Decoration Design Engineering, the Shanghai-based architectural firm that maintains a consistent presence in 3D printing industry headlines. Jiayuan International will work with WinSun to use 3D printing for garden and landscape products, with the intention of moving on to 3D printed buildings once 3D printing construction standards have been finalized in China.
“Adopting 3D-printing technology helps to reduce both time and costs for construction…[and] enables us to provide customised designs,” said Jiayuan International chief executive Cheuk Hiu Nam. “We believe that 3D printing is a technology that will become more mature and more widely used in the future. Right now, we’re still at the beginning…in our new projects, we will start from landscaping gardening and outdoor products.”
Jiayuan Centurial Garden is one of the residential construction projects developed by the Jiayuan International Group.
According to WinSun chairman Ma Yihe, 3D printing can currently cut building costs by about 10 percent compared to traditional construction methods. Once 3D printing construction standards have been finalized, however, the company is aiming to increase those savings to 50 percent. For customized buildings, the savings will be even greater, Ma continued, as the expense involved in customized building design doesn’t apply to 3D printing. No building can be constructed by traditional methods that can’t be created by 3D printing, he added.
However, there’s still a long way to go before the general public accepts 3D printing as a means for constructing buildings, said Ma.
“3D printing is already a very mature technology, it replaces human labour with machines. But many people are still not able to accept 3D-printed buildings as a norm since it is still a novel technology,” he said. “It’s a process. We’ll start from simple objects for landscaping [for Jiayuan International], before gradually moving up to building high-rise buildings as people get used to this technology.”
If any company is going to help people get used to the technology, it’s WinSun, which recently met with the Saudi Arabian government to discuss the state’s ambitious plan to build 1.5 million homes over the next five years. The company was invited to set up a 3D printing factory in Saudi Arabia to help implement the construction plan, and WinSun is also currently working on projects in Dubai, Germany, France and Egypt.
By getting Jiayuan International Group on board with 3D printed construction, the technology is going to seem that much more legitimate to average people. Once standards are finalized, the technology should really begin to take off, too. We’ll be sure to keep you updated as this partnership develops, and China’s 3D printed construction industry continues to grow. Discuss in the Jiayuan International forum at 3DPB.com.
[Source/Image: South China Morning Post]
