COBOD BOD2 3D printer builds 500-square-meter warehouse in Porto, Portugal in 9 days

Portuguese construction firm Havella has completed a 500-square-meter warehouse in Porto, Portugal using the COBOD BOD2 construction 3D printer. The project required only four workers and took nine days to finish. Havella CEO Jose Maria Ferreira cited speed as the primary advantage, noting that construction costs are split evenly between time, materials, and labor, with the 3D printing approach eliminating material waste. COBOD International CEO Philip Lund Nielsen stated that construction 3D printing is no longer an alternative method but a chosen option for projects like this.

This project demonstrates that construction-scale additive manufacturing is moving beyond demonstration houses into functional commercial structures. The BOD2 system, already deployed across multiple continents, competes with other large-format concrete printing systems from ICON, Peri Group, and Chinese entrants like Winsun. The key metric here is not the novelty of the print but the labor efficiency - four workers completing a 500-square-meter warehouse in nine days represents a meaningful reduction in both headcount and schedule compared to conventional block or precast construction. This aligns with the broader pattern of construction AM finding its economic footing in simple, repeatable building typologies where speed and labor savings outweigh the premium for printed material.

For COBOD, the Havella project adds a credible European reference in the commercial warehouse segment, a higher-value application than the single-family homes that dominated early construction AM coverage. The real test remains whether these projects can achieve consistent profitability across multiple sites without subsidies or novelty premiums. Havella’s ability to replicate this process on subsequent projects will determine whether this is a one-off demonstration or the beginning of a repeatable service model for construction AM in Southern Europe.