

3D Printed Houses Might be Closer Than You Thought - RaduTyrsina
http://techpp.com/2012/08/09/3d-printed-houses/

======
brudgers
I worked for Pulte shortly after they purchased the South Florida homebuilder
Divosta. A 3d printer needs to overcome many of the same hurdles Divosta
encountered. Among these is that the pace of construction is determined by
capital investment in equipment and so seasonal and cyclical variations in
demand cannot be accommodated efficiently by scaling capacity up or down
quickly relative to conventional construction.

Furthermore, the article takes a naive view of a construction schedule:

 _"It would build the house in such a way that you’d only need to put the
windows and the doors in the cutouts that have been left by the huge
construction robot."_

If there are no windows or doors, a building isn't dried in. That means that
domestic equipment and finishes (e.g. Kitchen appliances, gypsum celings, most
types of flooring, and trim) are not yet installed. And the process of
finishing a building takes more than half the time.

Now, one might argue that the system is intended for places requiring basic
shelter such as poverty stricken areas of the developing world (thereby
avoiding finishes) All I can say is that the history of high tech construction
systems in such places does not lead me to be optimistic. Lack of
infrastructure and cheap labor tend to create market conditions favoring other
approaches.

Manufactured housing was an ongoing project throughout the last century, and
an optimized solution was found. Unfortunately, it is the drop dead unsexy
house trailer.

[Edit] After watching the video, it is clear that the system requires a
specialized concrete mix - one with very low slump in order that a freshly
deposited layer does not just flow off the top of previously deposited layers.

This makes conventional delivery via truck from batch plant more difficult.
Low slump mixes tend to have proportionally shorter working times making
traffic delays or delays on the construction site lead to higher waste by the
mixer truck load. In addition specialized mixes require additional
coordination by the batch plant.

In addition, the environmental impact of concrete is high in terms of
greenhouse gas emissions compared to wood or steel.

~~~
RaduTyrsina
thanks for your remarks!

------
cstross
3D printed houses are still going to need some conventional building work --
they need stable foundations, just like any other building, which means some
excavation and levelling, and piles in unstable or waterlogged ground. They
need utility ducting and pipes laying, they need wiring and pipes installing
after construction, and so on. They probably also need cavity wall insulation
blowing in. Not to mention windows, doors, and so on. Finally, I notice that
this looks to be printing in unreinforced concrete. What about some rebar for
the load-bearing elements?

Yes, it's a neat idea and it may save a lot of bricklaying work -- but it's
not going to automate house construction 100%: not even close.

~~~
swalsh
Look at this cell phone:
[http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/cellphone_design/...](http://netdna.webdesignerdepot.com/uploads/cellphone_design/dkmb86g_487pr55s2hc_b.jpg)

Can you imagine a world where everyone has one of these in their pockets?
That's ridiculous! it's the size of my forearm. It's a neat idea and it may
enable faster communication - but it's not going to replace land line phones
100%: not even close.

------
icefox
Much more interesting to think about is what you can do that exploits the
properties of this. The two big ones seems to be insane speed and curved
surfaces. Could this be used to rapidly build bunkers or bridges in a war? How
about rome style aquaducts to channel water from a flood or even to simply
build dikes in an emergency? Maybe the speed would maybe make previous
expensive projects cheap such as massive water irrigation projects. Could
printing curved surfaces let you print temporary dam's?

Edit: or how about printing your very own pyramid or a road?

~~~
RaduTyrsina
Wow, these are really some interesting ideas, indeed! Pyramids are especially
awesome because they are said to store some kind of "special" energy :)

~~~
icefox
More useful than a pyramid, how about a solar updraft tower?

------
willyt
[http://www.rsh-p.com/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,6,12,...](http://www.rsh-p.com/render.aspx?siteID=1&navIDs=1,6,12,1580)
If you exclude the plumbing, electrics and foundations, houses can already
easily be built in a day.

~~~
RaduTyrsina
Is that wood?

~~~
ralfn
It looks like it. Building houses from wood is not very common here in
Holland, but i was told that many places with the right climat and soil build
using wood.

I even heard that you can kick through walls in many places in the states.
Blows my mind, but appearantly its common.

~~~
aidenn0
Interior walls for houses in the US are nearly universally made out of gypsum
plaster attached to a wooden frame. The plaster is easy to kick or punch
through (don't try this at home though, if you hit a stud, you will be
unhappy).

Exterior wall construction varies a lot more.

------
hardwear
NY Times has a good article on this.
[http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/garden/robots-that-
build-b...](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/11/garden/robots-that-build-but-
still-won-t-do-windows.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm)

~~~
rajupp
Wow! Look at the date! 2004. Amazing!

------
rizla
Could this work in space or on other planets. I'd imagine this is the kind of
tech that the military and NASA would be all over! If you could neatly pack
the contents of your moon base and ship it ahead by a day.

Or even the military leave this just off the coast of some less than
favourable country.

Great for setting up observation and living areas in hostile environments

Sealab anyone?

Edited: stupid iOS autocorrect

------
TeMPOraL
Few steps closer to nanolathing :).

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanolathe>

------
alexhawdon
Interesting stuff to think about but very poorly written and light on content
and analysis.

~~~
rajupp
Yeah right, you're talking as if he invented this technology

------
AlexSerban
When I hear the words 3D printing, it still sounds like something from a Sci-
Fi movie.

