Photos: Print-at-home chocolate to robot snakes - 10 weirdest items made by 3D printers

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3D printed gazebo

Gazebo

If printing out a building one block at a time doesn't take your fancy, then how about printing an entire structure in one go?

This two-metre-tall gazebo was printed inside a six-by-six-metre machine that was designed by Italian firm D-Shape to print out small buildings.

The printer builds structures by depositing a layer of sand, or other granular material, and then squirting out a layer of bonding agent on top of it. Each layer is printed out in a pattern that matches the design of a 3D computer model of the building.

The machine builds structures in 5-10mm layers, with each layer taking about 24 hours to solidify before the next layer is added.

D-Shape founder Enrico Dini believes the technology used to print the gazebo could be built upon to print out large buildings at low cost using sustainable materials.

The company is building an 8.5-metre version of the gazebo structure to be sited in Pisa, Italy.

Photo: D-Shape