The Huia house in Manukau Harbour, New Zealand, is the world’s first passive solar house using 3D concrete printed walls. Passive solar houses use energy from the sun for heating and lighting. 3D printed walls excel in maintaining a constant temperature, making them perfect from passive solar homes.
The challenge
To create the world’s first 3D concrete printed solar passive house, which would be built by Craft Homes and QOROX, designer Duncan Firth had to take lots of factors into consideration. The 3D printed home had to be built to withstand a range of environmental factors, like resistance against earthquake, fire, and water damage, which is vital in New Zealand. Additionally, to be qualified as a passive solar house, it should efficiently capture and use solar energy for heating, cooling, and lighting, so that it wouldn’t need any mechanical systems for this.
The takeaways
The construction of the Huia house demonstrated how well 3D concrete printed walls can serve in solar-heated homes. “Concrete walls are excellent at maintaining a consistent temperature to keep a heat warm or cool as the weather changes”, said Wafeay Swelim, QOROX CEO. “The walls were printed in only 20 hours of printing using 2 staff and installed on-site over 3 trips – an impressively short timeframe when compared to traditional building methods.” The north-facing 3D printed concrete walls were placed to capture maximum sunlight, warmth, and airflow throughout the day, and play an essential role in the home’s ability to naturally warm itself with solar energy.
Video taken during on-site installation
