Has the 3D printing revolution finally arrived?

theguardian.com:

N ori bricks, which were first fired in the Lancashire town of Accrington in 1887, quickly became legendary as the hardest brick ever produced. Their strength, derived from the chemical properties of the local clay, enabled megastructures to rise up around the world, including the Blackpool Tower in 1894 and the Empire State Building in New York in 1930. Their name is said to be a cock-up from when they meant to write “iron” on the works’ chimney.

This year a different, though equally pioneering, construction material is set to bring attention to the town, which is 20 miles north of Manchester and whose most recent claim to fame is being trash-talked in a 1989 advert for milk. On Charter Street, on a patch of disused land owned by the council, there are plans to build 46 net-zero-carbon homes, ranging from single-bedroom apartments to four-bed houses, all occupied by low-income families or military veterans. The homes will be made not from Nori bricks, but from 3D-extruded concrete. When the development is complete, potentially in late 2023, it will be the largest printed building complex in Europe.

“My grandad actually used to work at the brick factory,” says Scott Moon, born-and-raised in Accrington, whose company, Building for Humanity, is behind the Charter Street project. “When I was young he used to take me in there at night and I used to ride on the back of the forklift. So, bless him, if he could see us now, about to start concrete-printing houses in Accrington…”

You remember 3D printing – also known as additive manufacturing – right? You probably read an article around 2012 that predicted how every home would soon have a 3D printer that we would use for all manner of ingenious tasks. OK, well that didn’t happen.