An opportunity to consider 3D-printing to address the housing crisis.
The University of Windsor held a conference on 3D-printed housing solutions on Tuesday, where students, stakeholders, industry professionals, and ministry personnel, met to ask questions and gain different perspectives on building homes.
The University is proposing new technology such as 3D-printing and modular construction.
Once completed, the residence building will contain seven residential units with a total of 25 beds.
Sreekanta Das, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Windsor, says this will lead the way for other similar builds.
"This will set a new precedent that we can also do a mid-rise building - not high-rise yet. And we're making this a net-zero building, that's the other thing. I don't think any house in the world has been printed which is net-zero yet."
Currently, there isn't a Building Code of Conduct for 3D-printed homes across the province.
Bill Van Heyst, Dean for the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Windsor, says this residence will provide real data for future builds.
"We can theorize and postulate all we want in terms of how we think the building will perform, but until we actually have one up and have it monitored with various sensors, and we're tracking the data, that's the real world situation that we're going to have to test. That's what the data, the code is going to need in order to move forward and allow 3D-printing as a construction method in Ontario."
Van Heyst says data from the new residence building is being monitored during construction, and after the project is complete.
"We'll be taking data on temperature, relative humidity, because it's supposed to be net-zero as well, so energy usage is going to be very important so using heat pumps, solar cells, thickness of the walls... they're extra thick walls so you have more insulation in it. So I'm really excited, I think this is such an interesting test bed for our researchers."
Construction of the residence was put on pause in the winter, but will begin again soon.
The $2-million project is expected to be completed later this year.