3D Concrete Printing in Retail: Discount Store Takes Shape Layer by Layer

In Neubulach, Baden-Württemberg, a supermarket is being built whose walls are being produced largely on-site using 3D concrete printing. The future tenant: Netto Marken-Discount. The project shows how far additive construction methods have come and where their limitations lie within the conventional construction process

Brick by brick? Construction works a little differently in Neubulach. For a new supermarket, large sections of the walls are being produced directly on the construction site by mobile 3D concrete printers. According to the project participants, it is the world’s first supermarket of this size to use 3D concrete printing for the wall construction.

The building owner is Sehne Backwaren KG, while Netto Marken-Discount will use the building as a tenant in the future. The store covers around 1,700 square meters of floor space. More than 1,300 square meters of wall area is being produced using the 3D printing process, with the walls reaching heights of up to seven meters. According to the project partners, the shell construction of the walls, including the interfaces with other building components, was completed within around four weeks. At times, two printing robots were in operation simultaneously.

The process works like a normal 3D printer, only on a large scale. It is based on a digital building model. A print head applies concrete specially formulated for the process layer by layer. The material must be easy to pump while at the same time hardening quickly enough for the next layer to be applied on top.

One advantage is that the labor-intensive construction of formwork for the concrete walls is largely eliminated, since the printer applies the material directly in the desired shape. Curved or more complex wall shapes can also be implemented more easily as a result.

However, an entire building does not come out of the printer. Foundations, ceilings, roofs, steel reinforcement, and building services are still constructed using conventional methods. In Neubulach as well, the printed walls are combined with conventional structural components such as columns and ring beams.

For the approximately 465-square-meter expansion, the roughly five meter-high walls were produced using two printing systems. According to the companies involved, a five-person crew required a total of 75 printing hours over seven working days. It was already the second project of this kind carried out by Alquist for Walmart.

The repeated use of the technology provides practical experience with integrating it into standard construction processes and existing retail properties.

For retailers, the process could be particularly interesting for buildings with large wall areas and for standardized building types. Digital planning data can be reused for similar building types and adapted to different locations. At the same time, automation can speed up individual work steps and reduce the amount of manual labor required.

However, 3D concrete printing is not yet a standard construction method. Questions regarding standards, testing procedures, reinforcement, durability, and approvals continue to occupy researchers and the construction industry.

The Netto store is therefore primarily a practical test for large-scale retail construction. In Neubulach, the project is testing whether large wall areas can be produced automatically and directly on the construction site and effectively combined with conventional construction methods. Whether this will become an attractive solution for other retail properties depends on whether the process proves economical, reliable, and capable of delivering consistent quality when used repeatedly.

Sources: Netto Marken-Discount Press Release (German only), Alquist 3D Press Release, Qualitest Blog article, Engineering News Record Article