Canary Islands Turn to 3D Printing to Tackle Housing Crisis
The construction industry in the Canary Islands is adopting large-scale 3D printing technology to address the regional housing crisis by significantly reducing building times and costs through automated concrete construction.
Spain’s housing crisis, which is particularly severe in the Canary Islands, has triggered a search for faster ways to build homes. According to Diario de Avisos, the construction industry is now turning to large-scale 3D printing to create concrete structures. This technology promises to slash construction times and costs, offering a practical solution to the industry's ongoing labor shortages.
In the Canary Islands, the firm 3D Print Construction is leading this shift using machinery from the Danish company COBOD International. This automated system significantly improves logistics; while traditional building requires a large, specialized crew, this process needs only three people to supervise the equipment and manage the concrete flow. This automation not only boosts efficiency but also helps overcome the current lack of skilled construction workers.
Technically, the process uses Building Information Modeling (BIM) to ensure that digital designs are translated into physical structures with millimeter precision. A printer mounted on a metal frame deposits concrete layer by layer, following a pre-programmed path. This method has already been proven in a pilot project in Tabaiba Alta, where the structure of a 160-square-meter home was completed in just 12 days—a fraction of the time required by conventional methods. The company is now working on a larger project in Adeje: a 16-unit housing block expected to be structurally complete within two months.
Industry experts estimate that 3D printing can reduce construction timelines by up to 70% and lower total costs by 20% to 30%. While foundations and basements still require traditional techniques, the printer can currently lay one cubic meter of concrete per hour, with plans to quadruple that speed soon.
This shift aims to make social housing more affordable and viable. The company is currently in talks with the Tenerife Island Council to use this technology for public housing projects, emphasizing that automation does not mean sacrificing design or quality. As the company looks to expand from the Canary Islands to mainland Spain, the industry faces the challenge of working within a regulatory framework that has yet to create specific standards for 3D printing, currently treating the technology simply as another piece of construction equipment.