IN Brief:
- Forty concrete elements were printed off-site in approximately 36 hours.
- The components were manufactured in Czechia and assembled at the Žilina development.
- The completed building had to meet normal structural, fire, thermal, and operational requirements.
HSF System has completed a commercial car-wash building in Žilina using 40 factory-produced, 3D-printed concrete components.
Forming part of the Klokan retail development, the structure is described as the first operational building of its type in Slovakia or Czechia and among the first functional commercial buildings in Europe to use the method.
The concrete elements were printed in Czechia in approximately 36 hours before being transported to Slovakia for assembly. HSF selected an off-site process rather than operating a large-format printer directly on the construction site.
Factory production allowed printing to continue in controlled conditions without weather interrupting the process, while also separating additive manufacture from foundations, services, fit-out, external works, logistics, and other site activities.
Coral Construction Technologies manufactured the elements through its proprietary printing process. The company is partly owned through HSF’s wider PURPOSIA Group structure and has previously supplied printed components for other building projects.
Acting as general contractor, HSF managed the concept, design preparation, coordination, construction, and delivery for MC Štadión, part of the KLM investment group.
The printed walls use concrete deposited in successive controlled layers, leaving a ribbed finish that records the manufacturing process and can reduce the need for a separate decorative treatment where the surface remains exposed.
Despite the different production method, the completed building remains subject to conventional requirements for stability, durability, thermal performance, fire resistance, weather protection, service integration, and safe operation.
Doors, windows, roof components, reinforcement, connections, membranes, drainage, mechanical systems, and equipment still require established design and installation methods. Printed concrete therefore replaces selected wall-production activities rather than the complete construction process.
Additive construction faces a production test
Large-format 3D printing has frequently been demonstrated through small houses, pavilions, street furniture, and prototype walls. Commercial adoption depends on repeatable performance within normal project programmes, approval routes, procurement structures, and cost controls.
The Žilina car wash strengthens that evidence by placing printed concrete within an operational commercial property. Havelar has also used additive construction to complete a public-building envelope in nine days, indicating that European projects are beginning to test the technology beyond temporary or demonstration structures.
Off-site printing offers several practical advantages because equipment can remain productive across projects, quality checks can take place before dispatch, and each site does not need to provide space, power, protection, and technical support for a large printer.
Transport and assembly introduce different constraints. Components need to be sized for road movement, designed for lifting, protected against damage, and connected accurately on site, while poor tolerances or unresolved interfaces can reduce the benefit of rapid printing.
Design decisions also move earlier because openings, services, reinforcement, component geometry, and lifting points need to be resolved before production. Late change may require a revised digital model and replacement component rather than an informal site adjustment.
Material efficiency remains one of the technology’s principal attractions, with printers placing concrete only where required by the digital geometry and producing hollow, ribbed, or optimised sections without conventional formwork.
Actual savings depend on mix design, reinforcement, rejected components, temporary supports, transport, lifting, and the remaining building layers. Comparisons based solely on the printed wall can therefore overstate savings across the completed building.
Concrete formulation must balance pumpability, buildability, open time, interlayer bond, strength development, shrinkage, and durability. A mix that moves efficiently through the printer also needs to retain its shape immediately and bond consistently with each following layer.
Regulatory approval remains project-specific because designers and contractors require evidence for material properties, structural behaviour, fire performance, moisture resistance, and connections. Wider adoption will depend on standards that allow printed elements to enter repeatable procurement without starting every project from first principles.
Labour requirements will change rather than disappear. Printer operators, digital designers, material technicians, quality inspectors, lifting teams, and conventional installers remain necessary, with more technical decisions transferred into preconstruction and manufacturing.
The Žilina building shows that rapid printing can be integrated with a conventional commercial development. The next stage will be repeated delivery with consistent cost, approval, tolerance, and production performance across a larger pipeline of projects.
