Thailand’s Siam Cement Group (SCG) has announced that it has completed the largest 3D printed building in ASEAN, a new medical centre with a total floor area of 345 sq m spread over two storeys.

Located in Saraburi, Thailand, the project is also dubbed the first two-storey 3D printed building in ASEAN and the first 3D printed medical centre in the world. It was constructed using a BOD2 3D concrete printer from COBOD.

A notable feature of the building is its wavy walls. According to COBOD, this design solution is made possible and was easy to implement thanks to the 3D construction printer and the design freedom it allows.

“Last year I was proud to announce our local partnership with SCG for introducing our technology to the Thai market. Now, the SCG team has truly shown the whole world why they are the right partner with this fantastic accomplishment of printing a design-free structure like this,” said Simon Klint Bergh, COBOD co-founder and head of APAC. “With this, SCG is setting new standards for what can be done and showing the way for the market.”

As an official distributor of COBOD in Thailand, SCG promotes the value of the innovative technology, which offers a range of benefits over traditional construction methods. The new building was specifically designed to support seismic loads, and the use of 3D printing technology increased construction speed and reduced the amount of labour required compared to conventional building methods.

Chalermwut Snguanyat, 3D printing and fabric concrete technology director at SCG, explained, “Besides demonstrating SCG capability to build a two-storey commercial building using the COBOD printer, the project’s highlight was to implement our research on a 3D printed structure. In this building, we successfully implemented results from our collaborative studies with top-tier universities in Thailand for constructing a one-storey 3D printed load-bearing structure and a two-storey 3D printed non-load bearing structure.

“The design of the 3D printed medical centre was approved by a senior professional engineer. The materials used in this building were SCG 3D printing mortars with strength classes of C75/80 and C30/35 for load-bearing and non-load-bearing 3D printed walls, respectively. As CPAC 3D printing solution under the SCG cement company umbrella, we aim to create best practices and standards for 3D printing construction. Moreover, our commitment is to help the construction industry become more sustainable and carbon-neutral through innovation and technology.”