Have you ever built a sand castle by dribbling wet sand, piling the walls higher and higher while you imagined the amenities inside? Using new technology, the Lewis Grand Hotel in the Philippines is doing the same on a larger scale, 3D printing an entire suite of rooms, including decorative spiral columns, 1,500 square feet of living space, and even a jacuzzi tub.

Lewis Yakich, owner of the Lewis Grand Hotel, worked with Andrey Rudenko, a Minnesotan who developed a machine to print using concrete and printed his own backyard castle. The device follows precisely planned routes, squirting out concrete one thin layer at a time. While the printing itself took only about 100 hours, planning the project was a labor of months. Not only did the walls have to be designed, but spaces had to be built in to include plumbing, electricity, and reinforcing rebar.

The concrete mix itself includes local ingredients such as sand and volcanic ash. The final structure measures 10.5 meters by 12.5 meters (34.5 feet by 41 feet) and stands 3 meters (10 feet) high.

Although the hotel suite was something of an experiment, Yakich plans to expand from there.

“The Philippines is actually a great place for concrete printing because of the weather. Currently everything is made out of concrete, and it’s a third world country so it can do a lot of good in disaster zones, etc.,” Yakich said in an interview with 3DPrint.com.

“The Philippines is in such need of low income housing that this technology is perfect for it.” As such, he aims to construct an entire subdivision using the concrete printer, building homes faster and at a fraction of the cost of traditional materials. “The goal would be to expand to 2,000 homes within a year,” Yakick said.

Source: http://www.psfk.com/2015/09/3d-printed-suite-lewis-grand-hotel-3d-printing-housing.html