India’s first 3D printed house by IIT Madras startup

India’s first 3D printed house is here. Tvasta Manufacturing Solutions, an IIT Madras alumni founded startup, took the initiative and built it in five days. The house was inaugurated by Union Finance Minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, early this week. Tvasta Manufacturing is part of the ASHA incubator of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs at IIT Madras.

The house, built in collaboration with Habitat for Humanity Terwilliger Center for Innovation in Shelter, is single storey, 600 sq feet and constructed with indigenous concrete 3D printing technology.

Tvasta on its blogpost mentions the intricacies of the technology. Tvasta’s goals are to make the structures affordable and sustainable. “The mix is based on ordinary Portland cement, but with lower water-cement ratio, reinforced with either amorphous metal fibers or plastic fibers. The 3D printers are capable of printing with aggregates up to 8 mm,” reads the post.

Tvasta stating its future plans on the company blog describes that the patentented 3D printing technology is the road to automate construction processes. This will enable the building process to become cheaper, better and faster. This will help in the mission of providing affordable housing and shelter for all.

The 3D printing journey around the globe too is in full swing. On similar lines, the future of education will be in a 3D printed school. An American philanthropist, Maggie and founder of a non-profit organization, Thinking Huts, Maggie Grout has envisioned a life size 3D printed school. The first of its kind will come up in Madagascar on the campus of a university in Fianarantsoa.

Grout has collaborated with Studio Mortazavi, a San Francisco based architectural design agency.

The school will be built with an architectural scale printer will shape out the construction material, building the walls layer by layer from ground up. The finished school will be a hybrid of 3D printed walls and materials locally sourced for roof, doors and windows, claims Thinking Hut on its website.