Owner of World's first 3D-printed Hotel to Print Cheaper Mass Housing Next

The Owner of The Lewis Grand Hotel in Angeles City, Pampagna, in The Phillipines, Lewis Yakich, is also the owner of the first 3D-printed hotel suite in the world. The suite is a two bedroom villa with a living room and a jacuzzi (also 3D printed), which will be part of the Hotel. The idea to 3D print an entire suite was proposed by Andrey Rudenko, famous for creating an unlivable 3D-printed castle. He also designed the printer alongside Yakich.

According to Yakich, a materials engineer and home builder, he spent several hours creating the design for the building. The building, measuring 10.5m x 12.5m, with a height of 3m is not only structurally sound, but actually stronger than current construction methods which hollow blocks allow for. The material used for the suite was made  from sand and volcanic ash.






Rudenko, while speaking to 3DPrint.com, says the first printer was developed in two (2) months but the method can now be replicated in 2 weeks.

The assembly tme for the printer was 2 months, but this can be replicated now in a couple of weeks as the assembly process has been worked out", He explains. "It took approximately one month to develop and test the right mix, using local materials. We have sand with volcanic sh here in the Phillipines, which is difficult to extrude, but a reliable process was developed and we obtained great results with pretty strong walls and good bonding between layers.

About the 3D-printer, Yakich says that it is designed in such a way that it can be assembled or dissembled, then moved to another location for a future project in which it can print a large range of design and design elements.

According to Yakich, the time spent in 3D printing the suite, including the time it took to manually install plumbing, wiring and rebars was more than a hundred hours. In the future, the plan is for those components to be 3D printed as well, with the process currently undergoing testing.

Yakich, though, doesn't intend to stop at 3D printing hotels. He has already gotten approval from the Phillipine government to build 300 3D-printed projects for low-income families. By his estimates, he will achieve 60% cost savings by 3D printing instead of using traditional methods of construction. He plans to build 2000 houses in 2 years. You can watch the process below