The world's largest 3D-printed building will soon be a luxury barn in Florida's 'Disney World for Horses' see inside the $3.3 million project
- Printed Farms is building and 3D printing a $3.3 million luxury horse barn, horse walker, and manure shed.
- When complete in August, the horse barn will be the world's largest 3D-printed building.
The next world's largest 3D-printed building isn't going to be a home, school, or office. Instead, it's going to be a luxury horse barn in Wellington, Florida set to be completed in August.
If you've been following the 3D printing construction industry, startup Printed Farms' decision to develop a horse facility may seem like a random idea. After all, proponents of the tech say one of its main benefits could be its ability to quickly alleviate the (human, not horse) housing crisis.
But for those who know the startup's founder Jim Ritter, it's an unsurprising endeavor: This horsey project is the perfect marriage between Ritter's company and his previous passions.
Before diving into the construction-tech world, Ritter was already in the horse industry developing and renting out multimillion-dollar stables.
He founded Printed Farms in 2019. In 2020 and 2021, his startup printed projects like a tractor shed and a home.
Printed Farms is based in the same village where the luxury barn is now being built: Wellington, Florida.
Wellington is a wealthy suburb about a 30-minute drive from West Palm Beach, Florida. Emphasis on "wealthy" — the median listing price of homes is at nearly $1 million according to data from Realtor.com.
If you aren't deep in the equestrian world, you might not be familiar with Wellington.
But if you are, you may know of the small town's glitzy and horsey reputation. As Ritter says, "Wellington is the Disney World for horses."
These aren't your average horseback riders.
"Most horse people don't work or spend money at the level of Wellington," he said. "It's the top of the horse sport."
The larger facility Printed Farms is now building in this prestigious location will include three units: a horse barn, a horse walker, and a manure shed.
The stable will stand at 10,678 square feet. This will surpass the current world's largest 3D-printed structure, a 6,900-square-foot administrative building in Dubai.
In total, these three buildings will cost $3.3 million to construct.
It wouldn't be Wellington without an expensive horse barn or equally expensive animals, after all.
When complete, the barn will house the typical Wellington-priced and prized horses.
Think $2 million to $12 million-dollar award-winning animals.
"These are Olympic-level horses that sell for millions of dollars," Ritter said. " You don't just put them in a tin shack."
In their new home, these high-end horses will have access to amenities most humans could only dream of having in their homes.
Think amenities like dentists, new shoes every four weeks, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and a $250,000 riding ring, Ritter said.
But the goal was never to build the world's biggest 3D-printed building.
"It just happened," Ritter said. "I had no clue."
To do this, Printed Farms is using COBOD's BOD2 printer.
COBOD's system has been a go-to printer for companies that aren't using their own in-house printers.
The BOD2's work is already done.
Only the 13-foot-tall wall systems were printed for this project.
Most of what's left are the finishing touches like plumbing, dirt around the landscaping, and stuccoing.
Printed Farms ran into several issues throughout the construction process, although most were out of its control.
Ritter initially ordered another printer to supplement his COBOD. But this printer was delayed by nine months and didn't arrive in time, slowing the build time. Then, hurricane season hit. Then, inflation and difficulties with supplying its initial concrete mix further delayed the building timeline.
This string of bad luck turned what could have been a two to three-month project into a nine-month process.
And it didn't help that two people on his four to seven-person crew suddenly couldn't work because of unrelated medical problems.
Proponents of 3D printing construction believe the tech can generally build homes cheaper, quicker, and safer while using less materials and physical labor.
But because printers aren't widely used in construction yet, these price cuts haven't been significant.
In this luxury horse barn project, using a printer did save some cash.
Ritter says traditional builders constructing this style of barn would have charged between $200 to $250 a square foot.
His team charged around $200 a square foot which he says is low "because for what we build, most people would've charged $250."
The building is "almost" flood and hurricane-resistant, Ritter says. It could have been fully resistant if they had included a cement roof but the buyers opted for roof trusses instead.
This concrete construction and a higher level of durability compared to traditional construction could make building and investing in this new tech worth the risk.
"If you're getting a concrete building that can withstand climate events so you don't have to rebuild after such an event, why not spend that money?" he said.
With how durable Ritter says this concrete printing material is, these horses could be living out the rest of their lives in this 3D-printed barn.
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