Are 3D-printed homes for the elderly a solution to the housing shortage? According to housing developer Silva Villas, they are. The first bio-based care home was completed this summer.

The product designs of tomorrow

Last July, the Act on Strengthening the Coordination of Social Housing came into force. The government determines how many homes are built, where they are built and for whom. The aim is to build homes more quickly, more affordably and in a more targeted manner to tackle the housing shortage. IJsselstein-based housebuilder Silva Villas has devised a different way of solving the housing crisis. In fifteen weeks, the company prints a sustainable home using a wood fibre biocomposite, made from waste material from the timber industry and recycled plastic.

With a floor area of 32 square metres, the home is not large, but it contains everything needed for comfortable and independent living. The technical components – comprising a prefabricated kitchen, bathroom and meter cupboard, weighing a total of two tonnes – are installed in one go using a crane. The home is then built around them.

The wall sections and roof edges are 3D-printed in the factory using Silva’s in-house robot and still display the characteristic layered pattern. A pigment gives the building elements their natural green colour. A complete wall element, 1.25 metres wide and three metres high, is ready in around twenty minutes. The walls are 25 centimetres thick, hollow and filled with wood wool for insulation. The elements can be reused two to three times and are then easily recyclable.

Using the same printing technique, the company also offers guest accommodation, workspaces or holiday villas, ranging from 32 to 100 square metres and with a starting price of 83,000 excluding VAT.

As proof of the pudding, the first informal care home, the Silva Embrace, was completed this summer in Everdingen. ‘A warm, bio-based home that allows generations to live side by side once more’, says the press release. You do, however, need to have a decent-sized garden.