When innovation meets regulations: The regulatory hurdles of 3D concrete printing – Interview with Mikkel Brich, 3DCP Group

3DCP Group A/S is a Danish construction company focused on on-site concrete 3D printing for residential and small commercial buildings. Founded in 2021, the firm combines architectural design, structural engineering, and robotic fabrication into a single digital workflow. Instead of relying on conventional formwork, building geometry is transferred from digital design data directly to large-format printers that deposit concrete layer by layer to form load-bearing walls.

For its projects, 3DCP Group uses gantry-based construction printers supplied by COBOD International, a Danish manufacturer that develops large-scale additive manufacturing systems for the building sector. This setup allows printing operations to be carried out directly on the construction site, reducing manual labor and limiting material waste during the shell construction phase.

The company offers both turnkey building projects and partial services such as printing structural shells or producing custom concrete elements with complex geometries. One of its more widely referenced projects is the Skovsporet student housing development in Holstebro, where the walls for 36 apartments were produced using construction-scale 3D printing. In parallel, 3DCP Group is working on alternative concrete mixes with reduced cement content to lower the embodied carbon of printed structures while maintaining the structural properties required for permanent buildings.

Interview with Mikkel Brich

In this interview with 3Druck.com, co-founder Mikkel Brich reflects on how introducing additive manufacturing into construction has reshaped long-established workflows and why technical progress alone is not enough to scale the technology. He also shares his broader view on how material development, regulation, and industry culture will influence whether 3D concrete printing becomes part of everyday building practice.

Looking back at your first full-scale 3D-printed buildings, what were the key technical and organizational bottlenecks, and how did they change your current workflows?

Traditional construction has evolved its methods over millennia. Introducing such radical innovation into the sector requires many established solutions to be rethought. This affects not just tools, but the entire mindset of how buildings are conceived and executed. Processes from architectural design all the way to the carpenter installing windows have to be changed and adapted to the technology. This transformation takes time and is still ongoing, but each project pushes the ecosystem a little further.

Which standards, testing, and certification issues are still the main barriers to broad adoption of 3D-printed concrete, and where do you see your own company making the biggest impact in changing these frameworks?

Currently, European regulations (Eurocodes) do not account for 3D printing. In practice, this means we have to fit the technology into rule sets developed for masonry or precast concrete elements. This is far from optimal and significantly slows down innovation, forcing us to compromise the technology’s full potential in order to obtain approvals. Without a dedicated framework, 3D printing remains treated as an exception rather than a true construction method. It clearly needs its own chapter in the Eurocodes.

Can you describe a recent project that reflects your current approach to 3D concrete printing, and which design, material, or process choices you found most valuable?

We recently completed the Skovsporet project, consisting of 36 student apartments in Denmark. For us, Skovsporet marked a turning point from experimentation to real-world scalability and demonstrated that the technology is commercially viable at a larger scale. At the same time, the project reinforced our belief that material innovation will ultimately define the future of the technology. We are therefore investing heavily in material development, as we expect traditional cement to be phased out in the coming years and replaced with less carbon-intensive alternatives.

Looking ahead 5–10 years, how do you expect construction-scale additive manufacturing to reshape the industry, and what do you believe will be required for this transformation to succeed?

We did not invent the light bulb by improving the candle; at some point, radical innovation is required to keep society moving forward. We see construction-scale 3D printing at a similar inflection point today. We believe that it can help solve many of the challenges facing the construction and housing sectors by enabling more affordable housing, reducing manual labor, shortening build times, and lowering environmental impact. However, technology alone is not enough—legislation and bureaucracy must evolve at the same pace for this transformation to truly succeed.

Further information on 3DCP Group can be found on the company’s website.