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Raphael Thys
Recently, many projects have been carried out using recyclable materials for sustainability. One of these projects was implemented by the Los Angeles-based architectural startup Azure.
Azure is using recycled plastic to 3D print prefab homes. The startup is now selling many house models ranging from a backyard studio to a two-bedroom ADU.
"The construction sector is the largest global consumer of raw materials, responsible for approximately 11 percent of the world's total carbon emissions. Our responsibility to our customers and future generations is to use the most sustainable practices imaginable," said Ross Maguire, the CEO of Azure, in April.
Azure also unveiled what it called the world's first 3D printed "backyard studio" made with recycled plastic materials in the same month.
The plastic 3D printed studios and accessory dwelling units (ADUs) - meaning legal and regulatory terms for a secondary house or apartment that shares the building lot of a larger, primary home - are now available for preorder as the startup prepares to ramp up its production line in the Culver City neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Azure uses recyclable plastics to build homes.
Faster, cheaper, and sustainable homes with 3D printing
Azure sticks up for building homes 70 percent faster and 30 percent cheaper than "traditional home construction methods." As Business Insider says, most 3D home builders use a form of mixed or pure concrete to build a home. However, Azure is "saying goodbye" to this by using sustainable materials.
Azure's printing materials consist of the waterproof plastic polymer generally found in plastic bottles and packaging food, according to the startup.
"Our supply chain should never be short in our lifetime," told Ross Maguire to Business Insider.
"We have created production efficiencies not only by capitalizing on the advances in 3D printing but by creating a design and process that is completed in only 20 hours. When compared with conventional construction, we produce the entire structural skeleton, the exterior sheathing, the water control barrier, the exterior finish, the passageways for utilities, and the grounding for interior finishes, in a fraction of the time and cost. By revolutionizing a new age of the home building with our sustainable, automated, and exact production processes, we see a very, very exciting future ahead," further added Maguire in April to describe the startup's goal.
Azure changes the construction industry
Azure was established by Ross Maguire and Gene Eidelman. Combining experience building and developing properties across three continents, they broke new ground in the construction industry.
Ross and Gene knew there was a better way to build. It became their goal to develop homes faster, more economically, and with much less of an environmental impact.
Azure Printed Homes is changing the construction industry by leveraging the revolutionary gains made in 3D printing technology and harnessing the power of recycled plastic polymers to prefabricate backyard studios and offices, Accessory Dwelling Units.
Ross and Gene are joined on this exciting journey by a team of experts from the fields of 3D printing, prefabricated construction, logistics, marketing, and finance with experience working for large builders as well as Tesla, Local Motors, and Oakridge National Laboratories.