The growing popularity of 3D printing in construction has architects and engineers designing new building materials , most commonly mixtures of cement , sand , and plastic - reinforced . Dutch firm Dus Architects last summer printed an 86-square - foot pavilion in Amsterdam out of recyclable bioplastic . Branch Technologies , founded in 2014 by architect Platt Boyd , has received $ 5000 from the prestigious National Science Foundation to try a variety of new building materials for additive manufacturing , including plastic polymers reinforced with carbon fibre and glass , as well as some biopolymers . In December , Branch built a 100 ft by 200 ft lattice - like pavilion for Art printing in Miami , which was 3D - printed using biodegradable bamboo filament .
The growing use of 3D printing in construction has architects and engineers exploring new building materials, most commonly mixtures of cement, sand, and plastic-polymers. Dutch firm Dus Architects last summer printed an 86-square-foot cabin in Amsterdam out of recyclable bioplastic. Branch Technologies, founded in 2014 by architect Platt Boyd, has received $750,000 from the US National Science Foundation to try a variety of new building materials for additive manufacturing, including plastic polymers reinforced with carbon fibre and glass, as well as some biopolymers. In December, Branch built a 100 ft by 200 ft lattice-like pavilion for Art Basel in Miami, which was 3D-printed using biodegradable bamboo filament.