Concrete 3D printing has generated more architectural renders than completed buildings. That’s changing — but slowly, and not in the way most vendors want you to believe.
What’s genuinely production-ready: single-storey residential and low-rise structures in markets with relaxed building codes (US sunbelt states, parts of the Middle East, East Africa). ICON, Cobod, and Apis Cor have real completions with real occupants. Print speeds have improved; material costs have come down.
What’s still vaporware: multi-storey structural printing at commercial scale, integrated MEP printing, and any claim that printed buildings are cost-competitive with traditional construction in high-wage markets. The labour saving is real. The material premium erases most of it.