“Home is where the heart is” is a famous saying, demonstrating that no matter where you are in the world, you are always tied to your loved ones by love. While there may be no shortage of love in one’s heart, a lack of affordable housing is becoming a worldwide dilemma.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, more than 7 million affordable housing units are needed nationwide. The Maine Affordable Housing Coalition says that in the Pine Tree State alone, the deficit is 20,000 housing units, which is growing yearly. MaineHousing estimates that 80,000 homes are needed in Maine over the next five years to keep up with demand.
Technicians at the Advanced Structures & Composites Center (ASCC) at the University of Maine (UMaine) hope their 3D-printed home can help to address this urgent need. Unveiled in November 2022, BioHome3D, a 600-square-foot wooden cabin, was the first 3D-printed house made entirely with 100% bio-based and recyclable materials — sawdust from the state’s lumber industry and bio-resin materials.
It was also designed to address labor shortages and supply chain issues impacting the cost and construction of affordable housing.
Photo Courtesy BioHome3D
“People can’t find homes, they’re very expensive,” Habib Dagher, the executive director of the UMaine’s ASCC, told CNN in June. “We also have an aging population … so there’s less and less people who are electricians, plumbers, or builders.”
BioHome3D was designed and manufactured as a part of the Hub & Spoke Sustainable Materials & Manufacturing Alliance for Renewable Technologies (SM²ART) Program between UMaine and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Other partners included the U.S. Department of Energy, MaineHousing, and the Maine Technology Institute.
In April, the center unveiled the world’s largest prototype polymer 3D printer, surpassing its previous 2019 Guinness World Record for the largest model. The new machine, called the “Factory of the Future 1.0,” can produce an object that is 96 feet in length, 36 feet in width, and 18 feet tall, entirely out of bio-based material at a rate of 500 pounds per hour.
Photo Courtesy BioHome3D
“This new technology allows UMaine-ASCC to scale up its research and production of its innovative biobased 3D printed home technology,” Mark Wiesendanger, MaineHousing’s development director, said in an April statement. “This effort creates another means of producing quality affordable housing while further driving costs down and using abundant wood residuals from Maine’s sawmills.
Dagher told CNN that the Center’s printers are the only ones building homes with wood residuals, generating the walls, floors, and roofs. “When they’re [other printers] doing concrete, they’re only printing the walls,” Dagher said.
A modular assembly allows for ASCC to make the pieces of a home at the University and for it to be put together off-site.
In a 2022 press release, ASCC said construction waste was also nearly eliminated due to the precision and care taken in the printing process.
The center is working out how to incorporate conduits for wiring and plumbing. Dagher told CNN that the goal is to be able to print 1,000 pounds of material in an hour, which could reproduce the BioHome3D in 48 hours.
“Our state is facing the perfect storm of a housing crisis and labor shortage, but the University of Maine is stepping up once again to show that we can address these serious challenges with trademark Maine ingenuity,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a 2022 statement. “With its innovative BioHome3D, UMaine’s Advanced Structures and Composites Center is thinking creatively about how we can tackle our housing shortage, strengthen our forest products industry, and deliver people a safe place to live so they can contribute to our economy.”
