We are proud to announce that 14 Trees, a joint venture between LafargeHolcim and CDC group, is using our BOD2 printer to print low-carbon housing and schools in Malawi. The walls of a first demo building in Lilongwe, Malawi was done in just 14 hours and the walls of a first school in just 18 hours.
3D printed buildings are popping up in more and more places, but so far Africa has not been on the map. 14Trees are about to change that. They are focused on building affordable houses, schools and social infrastructures in Africa. It was established by a.o. LafargeHolcim, a world leading provider of cement and concrete with 70,000 employees, with the aim to accelerate the production and commercialization of environmentally-friendly, affordable construction solutions in Africa. The large ambitions and roll out plans to more countries in Africa from LafargeHolcim and 14Trees are obviously welcomed by COBOD, that provides the 3D construction printers for this venture.
Henrik Lund-Nielsen, Founder and General Manager of COBOD commented: “We are very encouraged by the fact, that 14Trees now has brought our technology to beneficial use in Africa, and we are impressed by the speed they manage to achieve for the printing of the walls of the first buildings. Although already impressive, we are confident that we will see a further improvement in this as more buildings are being 3D printed. The shortage of affordable housing and schools in Africa is overwhelming and we do believe, that our technology can play a vital role in solving this, not at least by increasing the speed of execution. We have pledged our full support to LafargeHolcim and 14Trees in their endeavors and look forward to our continued cooperation with these fantastic organizations”.
Miljan Gutovic, Region Head Middle East Africa and LafargeHolcim Executive Committee member, said:
“I am very excited about the work of our joint venture 14Trees, innovating in 3D printing technology to accelerate affordable and sustainable building, from homes to schools. This is a great example of our commitment to build for people and the planet. Starting in Malawi, we will deploy this technology across the broader region with projects already in the pipeline in Kenya and Zimbabwe.”
For the projects in Malawi 14Trees chose a BOD2 printer from COBOD. The BOD2 3D construction printer is modular and consists of a number of modules of 2.5 m in each direction. 14Trees decided for a BOD2 model 4-4-2 (w*l*h) measuring 10*10*5 meters and with a print area of 9.6*9.6*3.1 meters. The speed of the BOD2 is up to 100 cm/second, equivalent to an output of almost 10 tons per hour. Two operators of the printers are required. COBOD provided training in Malawi to locals that 3D printed the buildings.