Godrej Construction, a subsidiary of Godrej & Boyce (the Godrej Group’s flagship company), announced the completion of a concrete 3D printed office at its campus in Khalapur, near Lonavala in Maharashtra. The 500-square-foot office was constructed in 40 hours using prefabricated modules and environmentally friendly materials, including up to 20% recycled concrete aggregates.
The office, dubbed ‘The Cocoon’ due to its curved elliptical design, was built in the form of prefabricated modules using innovative 3D Construction Printing (3DCP) Technology and assembled in 40 hours.
Concrete 3D Printed Office
The building of the project took less than 40 hours and included putting in 3D printed modules, doing civil work, waterproofing, laying flooring, painting the outside and inside, doing electrical work, lighting, installing AC, plumbing, drainage and sanitation fixtures, as well as putting in office furniture and landscaping.
Anup Mathew, Senior Vice President and Business Head, Godrej Construction said, “The Cocoon’ is a manifestation of our relentless pursuit of pushing boundaries, not just in terms of architectural design, but also in redefining construction timelines. Construction of ‘The Cocoon’ is a good demonstration of an effective team collaboration integrated with good project planning using tools like Building Information Modelling (BIM), Lean Construction methods, and 3D Construction Printing. At Godrej Construction, we are committed to delivering innovative and sustainably designed solutions tailored to the needs of our customers in the built environment.”
The office was built with a concrete mix design that included up to 20% Recycled Concrete Aggregates (RCA) sourced from the Godrej & Boyce Recycled Concrete manufacturing facility in Vikhroli, Mumbai.
While speaking to Hindustan Times, Abhijeet Gawde, Head of Business Development & Marketing, Godrej Construction, said the company has been working exploring the possibilities with 3D Construction Printing Technology for over two years, and had used it to make bus shelters, security pavilions which were deployed at the Vikhroli campus.”
“The Cocoon was conceived to challenge the timelines in construction and the senior management challenged the team to see how much the construction can be speeded up. So the team started with two months, and planned further to bring it down to a month, 15 days, a week and finally 40 hours.”
– Abhijeet Gawde, Head of Business Development & Marketing, Godrej Construction
The team used lean construction technology modules and chose a cocoon-shaped design over a rectangular one. We could have made it rectangular and built it with beams and columns, but that would have taken longer. As a result, we decided to create a column-free structure with a curvature and an elliptical design that would be more visually appealing. “3D construction printing technology enables the creation of complex designs,” Gawde added.
Adopting sustainable practices by Godrej Construction
According to Gawde, 3D construction printing technology is still evolving globally, and it is used more for designing individual horizontal structures than massive multi-story vertical structures. Godrej Construction was an early adopter of sustainable practices and materials, establishing a recycled concrete manufacturing plant in 2016-17.
Gawde said the construction sector contributes to carbon emissions, and using sustainable construction materials will help reduce the carbon footprint. “With increasing urbanisation, and many infrastructure and real estate projects underway, it is the need of the hour to reduce the emissions by using sustainable construction materials. A report by Centre for Science and Environment had said only 1% of construction debris and waste is recycled in India. So, more companies need to step forward and set up recycling plants.”
Godrej has recycled nearly 30,000 metric tonnes of construction debris to manufacture and supply paver blocks, solid blocks, AAC blocks, and box culverts to real estate developers, infrastructure companies, including to projects such as the Coastal Road and Mumbai Metro 2A and 7 lines.
Adopting cutting-edge technologies such as 3D printing is one way to address the construction debris and waste problem, and Godrej is taking the right steps.
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