Denmark sets one of Europe’s tightest cost caps on subsidized housing, a limit strict enough that it has stiffled new affordable construction for years. In Holstebro, a 3D printer just circumvented this issue.
3DCP Group has completed Skovsporet (“The Forest Trail”), a 36-apartment student village now standing as Europe’s largest 3D printed housing development. Printed on site with a COBOD BOD3 construction 3D printer for housing association NordVestBO, the project came in comfortably under the statutory cap, with sculptural, curved buildings that conventional construction methods would have priced out of contention. Its first students have already moved in.
Skovsporet spans 1,650 m² (~17,800 sq ft) across 6 buildings, organized into clusters of six apartments each. Individual units range from 38 to 50 m² (~410 to 540 sq ft). The village sits next to VIA University College and was designed by SAGA Space Architects together with MS+.
3D Printing Housing: Beating the Cost Cap
Remarkably, Skovsporet’s buildings were delivered at €1,880 per m² (~$205 per sq ft), excluding design, engineering, utility connections, and landscaping. For residents, that translates to rent starting at €670 (~$780) per month for a 50 m² apartment.
The curved walls are where the economics get interesting. With conventional methods, brick, bespoke formwork, or precast elements, every curve adds cost. With 3D printing, a curve costs no more than a straight line, so Skovsporet’s rounded, sculptural forms carried no premium. Another bonus for the project is that the 3DCP Group was able to source materials locally, including a cement formulation that emits up to 30% less CO₂ in production than traditional cement.
A Three-Person Crew Printed One Building in Five Days
All 36 apartments were printed on site by a single COBOD BOD3 printer, operated throughout by a crew of just three, a fraction of the labor a conventional site this size would require. They could complete one building, that held six apartments, (275 m², ~3,000 sq ft) in just five working days. The printer also took on the repetitive, heavy lifting that typically wears down construction crews, improving job-site safety, while building from a digital model kept wall precision consistent across all six clusters.
“The technical breakthrough was not printing one successful structure,” 3DCP Group Co-Founder and CEO Mikkel Brich said. “It was repeating the process across six clusters while improving speed, maintaining accuracy, and integrating the printed elements with conventional building systems.”
Interior Design and Materials
Each apartment functions as a complete home, with a kitchen, study space, lounge, bathroom, and sleeping area. Roof windows and sloped ceilings bring daylight deep into the rooms, and printed concrete is paired with timber, cork paneling, and glass for a Scandinavian interior feel. The six buildings frame shared courtyards, with gardens, footpaths, and cycle parking designed to balance private living space with community areas.
Resident Amalie Hvas described her first impression of the printed apartment: “I like it. It gives the building character. When you think of 3D printing, you picture a little machine making something in plastic, not an entire apartment!”
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*All Photo Credits: COBOD