Holcim, COBOD and PERI complete Europe’s largest 3D-printed housing project

Twelve social housing units in Bezannes, near Reims, have put 3D printing into one of its clearest real-world wins yet. The ViliaSprint² building, inaugurated on April 2, 2026 by Plurial Novilia, is described as the first residential building in France whose load-bearing structure and all walls were produced by on-site 3D concrete printing, and as the largest 3D-printed residential building in Europe.

The project stretches across about 800 square meters of habitable space on three levels, and it was completed in 12 months. The walls were printed in roughly three months, a pace that gives the story its strongest shareable detail: this was not a lab demo or a one-off showpiece, but a lived-in housing block built for everyday use. Plurial Novilia, a subsidiary of Action Logement, first announced the project on April 4, 2025, with the printing phase expected to end in June 2025 and delivery planned for the first quarter of 2026.

What makes ViliaSprint² especially useful to watch is the way it was set up for comparison. A nearly identical conventional building was constructed on the same plot, allowing the project partners to measure the printed approach against standard construction in the same conditions. Holcim says the rounded design of the printed building reduced total concrete use by about 10% compared with a standard rectangular structure, while also helping cut construction time.

For the 3D printing community, that is the part that matters. The most important developments in additive manufacturing are no longer just bigger gantries or louder launch announcements. They are the projects that prove repeatability, tighten material use, and earn public trust. A housing block with 12 units, built for social housing and finished on a real schedule, pushes the technology closer to the kind of boring reliability that changes markets.

Holcim and COBOD have worked together since 2019, and Holcim invested in COBOD on October 7, 2022 to push materials, robotics, and automation further. PERI says 3D construction printing is aimed at labor and housing shortages, with a focus on residential construction and prefabricated parts. The ViliaSprint² partner list also includes HOBO Architecture, Demathieu & Bard Construction, Amodis, IdB, Schöck and Socotec.

That mix of industrial backing, on-site printing, and direct comparison with conventional building is the real signal here. Large-scale 3D printing keeps moving from promise to practice, and each project like this makes the case a little easier to believe.