Eight hours away from Calgary,
in a small community called Procter sits a curious-looking 3D printed concrete house.
With gorgeous views of the Kootenay Lake and mountains, this tiny house fits beautifully into
the surrounding landscape. This is the Fibonacci house built by Twente Additive Manufacturing
or TAM. It is a 35 m2 or 375 ft2 tiny house, shaped like an extruded Fibonacci spiral.
They flew me out to visit the house and their 3d printing facility which is right next to
it. Their only request was that my review would be completely honest and unbiased. So, in this
video we’re going to cover the good, bad and the ugly of this 3D printed concrete house.
Let’s first look at how the building was made. An outline for the foundation was printed in the
factory in separate parts. After the concrete cured, the pieces were placed on site and
insulating foam was sprayed inside and outside the foundation perimeter.
Concrete was pumped over the foam and levelled off.
Next, 20 separate wall pieces were 3D printed in the factory.
The company has developed a very unique 9 axis 3D printer with an ABB robot and custommade gantry.
Every wall uses a two leaf cavity wall construction method.
Horizontal rebar was added in between the printed layers for extra support. The house
was made with K1 concrete mix, with an accelerant mixed into the concrete. All
you need to do is add the right amount of water and pump it out of one nozzle.
When all 20 pieces were printed and cured, they were trucked to the site 50 feet away. All the
ends were cut off with a saw for continuous insulation,
minimal thermal bridging and reduced condensation.
Next, the prefabricated pieces were assembled with a lifting crane. Polyurethane foam
insulation was sprayed in the cavity in 12 to 14” increments to ensure complete curing.
The house was painted with a grey elastomeric paint with 300% elasticity for additional water
repellency and to bridge microfractures. Total volume of concrete used is 800,000
m3.Two 3d printed concrete columns in front of the house support a massive wooden canopy.
These were printed with a more expensive K2 concrete mix, where an accelerant was added
right before pumping, at the nozzle. The K2 mix allows for finer layers and faster curing.
These gorgeous curved columns were left unpainted so they are a different color than the house.
The walls were printed and installed in 5 weeks by 4 workers for $6000. However,
finishing the rest of the house brought the total cost up to $100,000. This is proof
that walls are one of the smallest and cheapest parts of building a house.
Cedar and fir wood siding on the exterior of the house
and the underside of the canopy was harvested from the surrounding community forest.
An open plan kitchen and living space are on the first floor of this tiny home, with
a shower room tucked inside the narrowest part of the spiral -shaped floor plan.
The upper level is reached by a ladder.
It can accommodate 2 adults and 2 children. This is the first fully 3d printed home on airbnb.
Alright, now let’s discuss all the good things about this project. Twente Additive Manufacturing
is run by a small group. They are some of the most creative, entrepreneurial, down-to-earth,
honest and fun-loving people I have ever met. They are passionate about 3D printing
and are pushing form and material exploration. The Fibonacci house is not just form for form’s sake;
they chose a spiral because it would have been very expensive to make this shape with traditional
formwork. Printing a curved wall with different radii is not an issue when using a 3D printer.
TAM even 3D printed a sculptural table leg and bathroom sink to show off the versatility of the
robot. The front door handle is in the shape of a Fibonacci spiral. The quality of the 3D printed
beads is excellent. They were straight and even, with very few wobbles. The cedar wood adds warmth
to the interiors and contrasts the cold-looking concrete. Laying out furniture in a curved space
is pretty difficult, but they did an excellent job. It doesn’t feel like a cramped space.
The bathroom is fun and inspirational. The electrical box, heater and water lines
are distributed in one framed wall. Outside, the site is their playground.
TAM uses the surrounding land and forest as inspiration to come up with different
problems that can be solved with a 3D concrete printer. They have printed
staircases on sloped land and a modern day stonehenge with sculptures and seating. They
have 3D printed a small section of a wall with minimal connections to reduce thermal bridging.
When we visited their factory, they were printing concrete wall shingles.
A subtle design on each panel will come together to form a giant big horn sheep !
They are very transparent and aren’t afraid of showing their mistakes. They showed us how much
work goes into cleaning 3D printer nozzle heads and machines: an essential phase that every
other 3d printing company hides. They displayed a failed print right outside the Fibonacci house to
show off the interior construction. In addition to printing walls, they also build custom 3D printing
machines: the largest goes for around $1.2 million machine, while the smallest is $250,000
and fits on a truck. There are a couple of bad things about
this project. The lack of adequate insulation at the perimeter of the foundation makes the floor
very cold. I use a FLIR thermal imaging camera to see how much heat was lost at the base of walls.
Concrete wants to expand and contract at the same spot. Since the house was designed with
offset joints, visible cracks have formed on the exterior wall. This could have been avoided
with a continuous expansion joint. Also, despite being made from a single 3D model,
the curved walls do not align. Inside, many electrical outlet plates are loose.
The Fibonacci house is great as an Airbnb, but it is not practical as a long term residence.
Ian, from TAM, admits this. He views the house as a showcase for clients and investors;
it’s an experiment to show off the capabilities of 3D printed technology.
TAM actually had plans to construction a million dollar home, but the pandemic caused them to
reassess their priorities and they settled on a smaller, more experimental 3D printed home.
Now, the ugly. Like I said earlier, the people working for TAM are extremely creative and willing
to learn, but they aren’t trained architects, engineers, construction managers or experts
in this field and it shows. The beautiful, fun concrete shingles have gaps in between
and are screwed directly over Tyvek. There’s no flashing at the top of the windows or the door.
There are large gaps at the front door which lets in cold air and bugs. We killed about 50
spiders in 3 hours before bailing. There’s a quote that “repetition leads
to mastery”. We can’t do something once, be satisfied with an average outcome and move on.
The house and all the other projects on their site are fun and have so much potential,
but they are desperately lacking refinement. I see TAM as a jack of all trades and a
consultant to many other businesses in the 3D printing industry. But I’m not sure what they
are best at and what they want to focus on. I really appreciate the opportunity to visit
Canada for t he first time and see a 3D concrete printer in action. They opened my eyes to how much
research, development and innovation is currently going on in the 3D printed world.
The team at Twente Additive Manufacturing are proud Canadians, trying to revitalize the city
of Nelson in British Columbia which is admirable. I will post a full interview with co-founder Jim
Ziemlanski on my Patreon page soon, which will give a little more insight into TAM’s past,
present, and future plans. I’ll link my Patreon page in the description. If you can support me,
I’d really appreciate it. A big thank you to everyone already supporting me.
Don’t forget to hit the like button and subscribe to my channel. Thanks for watching. See ya.