Havelar has delivered a 500 m2 recycling centre office for the municipality of Matosinhos, printed in nine days with a COBOD BOD2 machine and a four-person crew. It finished on its allocated budget, which the project partners describe as uncommon for public works in Portugal. Havelar has also printed 32 housing units in Porto, with 53 more scheduled for 2026. The full announcement gives the curved-wall detail, the parallel-trade sequencing and the figures behind the time and cost claims.
A 500 m2 public building in Portugal was printed rather than built, in nine days, by four people.
The office sits at the Ecocentro de Perafita recycling centre and was built for the municipality of Matosinhos, where public construction has historically faced cost overruns. Havelar has also printed 32 housing units in Porto, with 53 more scheduled for construction later in 2026.
Curved walls run throughout the structure. Printed, they come straight out of the digital model with no extra labour or material, where conventional formwork would have added significant cost. The exterior curves also provide passive solar shading.
Jose Maria Ferreira, who founded Havelar, put it this way: 'The main advantage is time. In construction terms, it is a third: a third of the time, a third of the materials, and a third of the people.'
Barbara Rangel, at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, noted that trades can work in parallel because nobody waits for walls or slabs to dry. COBOD has more than 90 printers deployed across 35 countries.
Frequently asked questions
Nine days, four people, and a building that came in under budget. What took so long to try?
The full answer is in the original report. Read it at COBOD International.
A printed wall has no formwork. So why has nobody else done this at scale?
The full answer is in the original report. Read it at COBOD International.
If it works on one public building, what stops it moving to housing?
The full answer is in the original report. Read it at COBOD International.
Get the long read at COBOD International
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