O access to housing is one of the great questions of our day. And build sustainable homes with reduced carbon emissions is a challenge imposed by the European Union, which will greatly impact construction and real estate in Portugal. To provide answers to these two questions, there is now a solution in sight. To the 3D printing houses They arrived in Portugal through Havelar, which wants to put them on the market with prices starting at 150 thousand euros.
A construction of 3D houses It’s a reality out there. And now it has arrived in Portugal. One of those responsible for printing 3D houses in our country is Havelar, which made an agreement with a global 3D technology company, Cobod. “Our vision is to create a solution for housing crisiswith technology that will change the way we do things houses no future with high levels of automation, sustainability and design”, said Patrick Eichiner, CEO and co-founder of Havelar, speaking to journalists present at the company’s facilities in Vilar do Pinheiro (Vila do Conde) this Tuesday, March 19 .
The one that is first 3D house Completed in Portugal, it is a T2 with 90 square meters, which has concrete walls that took just 18 hours to print. Afterwards, the house assembly – which includes the roof, doors, windows, kitchen and bathroom – took around two weeks. Thus, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, co-founder of Havelar and architect of the OODA group, admits that “we managed deliver the houses in a very short time” – presenting 70% faster construction compared to traditional housing. One house 3D With the characteristics of this model floor it costs 150 thousand euros “turnkey”.
3D houses will hit the market soon: how?
After printing the first 3D house and since they are already developing the second at their facilities in the North of the country, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas has no doubt that they are “ready to enter the market (…) prototype house it can be built tomorrow in another place”, guaranteeing energy efficiency, as well as seismic and weather safety.
On hand they already have several architecture projects designed by renowned architects, such as the Portuguese Álvaro Siza Vieira and the Japanese Kengo Kuma, who embraced this project with the desire to provide “exclusive but accessible designs”, explain those responsible during the visit.
Havelar’s idea is to establish partnerships with real estate developers, municipalities and owners of large plots of land to begin large-scale construction of these 3D houses. “The objective is to operate in the affordable housing market and, for this, scale is fundamental. So there is a ratio here of houses we want to build versus the prices we can get sell the houses. 20 will be the minimum number of houses to start building”, confirms Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, who admits that the 3D house prices they can vary between 150 thousand and 250 thousand euros, a value to which the price of the land is added.
So far, Havelar has made progress with a investment in Portugal of 5 million euros, which includes the acquisition of the printer that has the capacity to build 50 3D homes per year (although this depends on the size of the house, design, finishes, among others). The acquisition of another impressora 3D is in sight as soon as they have a project with more than 50 houses in the country in hand.
“We have several expressions of interest and several opportunities in Portugal, specifically with land with construction capacity in the order of 50-60 houses – which is the market that interests us”, explains the architect of the OODA group and co-founder of Havelar, revealing that “we also have some public entities, some municipalities interested in the technology”.
For now, there are no closed partners, but those responsible for Havelar believe that it will be possible to build at least between 30-40 3D houses in Portugal (and ready to live) by the end of 2024.