After realising the need for 3D concrete printing technology, Shashank Shekhar, Ankita Sinha, and Rishabh Mathur co-founded MiCoB to work towards merging art, automation, and construction.
“Construction has evolved in the past 100 years, but 3D printing is going to change the way construction is done,” says Shashank.
In 3D printing, construction material is deposited, assembled, and solidified under computer control, with the material being added subsequently layer by layer.
Explaining how the structures are made using 3D printing, he says, “Firstly, we freeze a 3D architectural layout of the building.”
“Secondly, we consider structural configuration — keeping earthquake regions and zones, wind load, and snow load in mind. Thirdly, we look at the structural design part.”
“While columns are made using steel and reinforced cement concrete (RCC), all the walls are 3D printed by laying sequential layers of the material,” he says.
Shashank mentions that 3D printing does 30% of the construction work. The remaining work — including the installation of electrical systems, plumbing, and painting — is done in a conventional way.
“On average, it takes about three months to construct a 4BHK house spread over 2,000 sq ft of area,” he says.
Research also shows that 3D-printed construction is 10–25% cheaper than the cost of building with concrete masonry units.
So far, the startup has 3D printed and delivered 30 bunkers and three building structures for the defence across Ahmedabad, Visakhapatnam, Sikkim, Maharashtra, and Arunachal Pradesh.