Havelar Prints a Public Building in Nine Days and Delivers It on Budget

• Portuguese firm Havelar erected a 500 m² recycling center office at the Ecocentro de Perafita in Porto for the Matosinhos municipality using a COBOD BOD2 3D printer, a four-person crew, and nine working days. More unusually still, the project came in on budget, a feat the partners themselves described as rare for public works in…

Portuguese firm Havelar erected a 500 m² recycling center office at the Ecocentro de Perafita in Porto for the Matosinhos municipality using a COBOD BOD2 3D printer, a four-person crew, and nine working days. More unusually still, the project came in on budget, a feat the partners themselves described as rare for public works in Portugal. The building’s most visible feature is also its most instructive. Curved concrete walls run throughout the structure, the kind of geometry that typically demands expensive custom formwork and adds weeks to a conventional timeline. With 3D printing, those curves emerge directly from the digital model, requiring no additional labor or material cost. Exterior view of the completed Ecocentro de Perafita office, Matosinhos, Portugal. Photo via COBOD. Accord