CyBe Construction Announces That 3D Printing is Complete for Dubai’s R&Drone Laboratory

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since Dubai opened the doors of the first 3D printed office building. The United Arab Emirates city state recognizes the necessity for standardization in 3D printed construction, and said that 25% of all its new buildings will be 3D printed by the year 2030. This prediction is well on its way to becoming true, with Dubai currently developing a 3D printed skyscraper, a 3D printed residential building, and 3D printed laboratories for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. Netherlands-based CyBe Construction has been hard at work to develop a 3D printed R&Drone Laboratory, which will also be based at the Solar Park laboratories as part of a Research & Development Center; the company recently announced that printing for the lab is complete.

The project is being planned and constructed under the direction of the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), and the completed lab will be used to conduct drone and 3D printing research. While CyBe has been taking care of the 3D printing with its mobile CyBe RC 3Dp concrete 3D printer, the engineering and final construction will be completed by Wanders Architects, Witteveen + Bos, and CONVRGNT Value Engineering, which was awarded the construction contract for the 3D printed laboratory in the fall of 2016.

CyBe founder and managing director Berry Hendriks and his team participated in several meetings in Dubai last month, and the company is now finally able to reveal the first 3D printing details of the building. The 3D printed laboratory elements have been completed, and because the CyBe RC 3Dp is able to move independently on large caterpillar tracks, everything was printed on location in Dubai.

This is pretty exciting news, as CyBe notes that it is the first laboratory in the world, and the first building in the UAE, to be fully 3D printed on site, saving both time and money on transportation. Additionally, 3D printing with concrete is more eco-friendly, as it has less CO₂ emission and waste.

CyBe designed, engineered, and 3D printed the walls and parapets for the R&Drone Laboratory, which consists of 27 separate, 3D printed elements. Everything was printed under the controlled environment of a tent in the Dubai desert, including the inner and outer walls and smaller parapets.

The company predicted that it could 3D print the 168-square-meter laboratory in just three weeks, and easily made good on the prediction, showing that buildings can be constructed in a much shorter amount of time when they’re 3D printed as opposed to using conventional methods. The Dubai Central Laboratory also gave CyBe approval to print the building using its high-performance 3D printable MORTAR material, which was announced in late 2015.

CyBe Construction wrote, “This printing method generates a high spin-off for CyBe, as similar elements can be utilized in several projects for various clients. The experience we gained from the R&Drone-project will be of use during upcoming projects like ‘De Vergaderfabriek‘, which will also be printed on site.”

CONVRGNT is working to finish the building by adding elements like doors, stairs, sanitary facilities, and the roof. Discuss in the CyBe Construction forum at 3DPB.com.