
Man builds 3D printed concrete castle in his own backyard - e15ctr0n
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140826-minnesotan-world-first-3d-printed-concrete-castle-in-his-own-backyard.html
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yummybear
While 3D printers and great and there's fantastic possibilities for their use
ahead, I have a hard time seeing the printing of entire houses as one.

We already have great modular, mass-producable and cheap elements for
assembling houses: Bricks and concrete slabs.

It's possible to assemble the basic structure of a house in days with
prefabricated elements.

Where I do see a need for 3D printers are in products that aren't mass
producable, items that need special fitting, items with a unique design.

~~~
ibisum
Prefab is labor and gas intensive. The advantage to this technology is that
you can do all the assembly in place and don't need trucking and all the other
headaches to get stuff there. As a tool for building dwellings in remote
places, I think this tech has a bright future .. I can see it being used to
rapidly build refugee homes in deserts and so on..

~~~
asuffield
I worked for a construction company once, and spending some time on site while
buildings are going up makes a couple of things very clear:

Walls are easy, cheap, and extremely fast to build.

Almost all the effort in construction goes into putting the fittings into the
rooms.

There are interesting things you could do with 3d-printed concrete, like
creating complex structures on-spec, but labour-saving just isn't going to be
one of them - the labour costs of brick walls are minimal. It's the plumbing
and electrics that get you every time.

~~~
AlexanderDhoore
I don't see a problem with printing plumbing. Just switch from concrete to PVC
for the tubes.

Electric wires might be a bit tricky to "print". But I can imagine a machine
that inserts the wires into the right places...

One day, you'll print a house with curtains and wooden floor included.

~~~
asuffield
If you could build a 3d printer that could lay down PVC pipes to heating/hot-
water spec, that would revolutionise construction in the way that a concrete
printer seems unlikely to do.

If you could do walls/floors/plumbing/electrics in one machine in one pass, it
would change the world in ways that are hard to imagine - this would
completely change the economics of construction projects.

Nobody's done those yet, sadly. They seem difficult things to design.

~~~
mathgladiator
Yet is the key word.

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bruce511
The castle itself is pretty cool.

What I would be interested in are the numbers in terms of cost saving (when
implemented at scale). The printer seems to replace some of the labour of
building in say brick or wood, but of course the labor to build the walls is
only one of the costs involved.

Consider the major cost areas; land, earthworks, foundations, structure
materials, structure labour, windows and doors, plastering, plumbing,
electrics, painting, bathrooms, kitchen, floors.

Clearly this optimizes one of the processes, and it may make construction
timeless and if you like the finish you can avoid plastering etc, but given
that you only save the labor, not the materials,I'm not sure what the eventual
monetary saving would be.

Architecturally though it can do things your regular brickie probably can't do
- curves for example - so that may end up being the true value of the printer.

~~~
krasin
With a second printer head added, it should be possible to deposit thermal
insulator right within a wall. The insulator just needs to be semi-liquid
(small balls are ok).

~~~
saalweachter
Sprayed insulation is already a thing. Additionally, there are additives
(aerogels maybe? I can't remember but aerogels can do anything) you can add to
concrete to raise its insulating value significantly.

~~~
maxerickson
Boring old styrofoam is a major one:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_polystyrene_concrete](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expanded_polystyrene_concrete)

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burgers
Are there building codes that allow for full structures built with non-
reinforced concrete?

~~~
ams6110
Probably not. I wondered the same thing.

There are some codes that allow for fiberglass-reinforced concrete in certain
applications but I don't think load-bearing walls are one.

If you read towards the end of the piece he admits he had to use rebar in the
walls. That's not shown in any of the photos though.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I can't remember at the moment where I read it, but there is a university in
the states that is going to attempt a full house 3D print with concrete _with_
rebar in the print process.

EDIT: Found it! [http://3dprint.com/12034/3d-printed-house-pool-
ny/](http://3dprint.com/12034/3d-printed-house-pool-ny/)

"New York City architect/contractor Adam Kushner begins construction of the
first ever 3D printed estate, which features a 3D printed swimming pool,
4-bedroom, 2400 square foot home, and more. The 3D printer which will be a
modified version of Enrico Dini’s D-shape printer, will, if all goes as
planned, eventually be able to automatically place rebar within the 3D printed
house, as it prints."

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noss
This is interesting experimentation. However everything I see in 3D-printed
houses seem very much built for the sake of being 3D-printer built. Technology
in search of a problem to solve. And this is probably not far off the truth at
this stage. Many people are also dismissive that see the productions and don't
have enough imagination to see things possible here that are disruptive
compared to what you do today.

Later years I have begun to see and appreciate the handcraft gone into
masonry. The results are very decorative and the material used is very
modular. You buy standard size bricks (but sometimes cut them). I would love
to see 3d-printing include bricks in the process. And then advance them so
much that the machines can build arches. This is just my idea. I think
architects that are less interested in the 3D-printing technology and more
interested in amazing architecture need to be involved and use it as a
component in construction.

~~~
SupremumLimit
Well, there are brick laying robots already (although not combined with 3D
printers): [https://plus.google.com/photos/+Construction-
robotics/albums...](https://plus.google.com/photos/+Construction-
robotics/albums/5953609607534592913)

~~~
noss
Glad to see that, however this is not very sophisticated. We used to build
houses where the loading walls were thick brick walls, and from what I
understand it was mostly given up because of the costly skilled labor
requirements. I dream of technology enabling us to construct houses like those
again, and of course more beautiful architecture.

I've seen some other brick laying robots, one that built prefab segments where
fine distance and rotation of the bricks made a complicated pattern. And there
is also those robots that lay brick roads.

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jqm
Super awesome! Love the striated colors. I see this having a future. Possibly
much more than 3-D home printers.

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ermintrude
He claims he's building the first functional 3D printed house, but the Chinese
seem to be way ahead: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-
elsewhere-27156775](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-
elsewhere-27156775). Still pretty cool though.

I think this might be a better system than 3D printing for houses though:
[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2683192/Could...](http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2683192/Could-
giant-Lego-help-build-REAL-houses-Toy-shaped-bricks-help-construction-
industry-build-80-faster.html)

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derjames
Technically it is 'mortar'. 'Concrete' implies the use of gravel. It would be
interesting to know if the mixture was heavily modified with chemical
additives to give and maintain that particular flowability and to
extend/reduce the setting times. Very cool project.

~~~
DanBC
> 'Concrete' implies the use of gravel.

Really? Concrete to me implies a mix of cement and aggregates, and he's using
sand as the aggregate.

You raise an interesting point: Cement is the expensive part and you lower
cost by using bigger aggregates.

A mostly cement house is, environmentally, pretty horrific.

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fernly
Tried to leave this comment on the target page where there is discussion of
smoothing the ridged surface:

There's another option for a smooth finish, or a finish with a different
texture: stucco. The printer could easily create nubs, or short spines, at
regular intervals that would act as supports for another coating.

That coating could be sprayed concrete, or it could be stucco applied
traditionally with a trowel. Masons can create a wide variety of surface
textures quickly with a trowel.

So the proposal here is to let the printer do the structural part, and details
like cornices and dentillations, but leave the finish of broad surfaces to
professionals with skills.

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JungleGymSam
I'm curious why they don't have some kind of trailing shroud on the print head
to better form the material. The round sides of each layer seem like wasted
material. If those were formed into squared edges, via a shroud, would that
provide a small increase in strength? Or even the same mount of strength with
less material?

In other words, if you shaved off the round sides you'd be better off because
of less weight and same strength, no?

~~~
Jack000
I'm not sure the material is viscous enough for that, it might have a certain
degree of roundness regardless.

In my head the shroud is directional, which means you'd need another actuator
at the nozzle. If he's using off the shelf cnc software that could actually be
complicated to implement.

~~~
JungleGymSam
Very true. Corners would require some very careful orchestration.

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Keyframe
I would like to hear form someone that is good with statics what he/she thinks
about this.

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joshuaheard
Great idea. I wish they would have included a picture of the whole printer.

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superasn
This is pretty neat. How cool it would be if this could also start printing
things on the inside like the bathroom tub, sink, and all the other fittings
too.

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zyztem
Concrete without rebar? I am in doubt about longevity of this structure.

~~~
bane
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colosseum)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantheon,_Rome)

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WatchDog
Are the hollow walls filled with anything?

~~~
kiiski
From the article:

    
    
      Rudenko therefore resorted to including rebars in the bottom and top walls. 'They
      are needed during the pouring of a variety of cementitious filling materials inside
      the printed walls.' The cement used, however, is just a regular cement mix with a
      few additives. 'It is possible to use a special quick-setting concrete to speed
      up the process, but it will affect the cost, and I don't see much reason to build
      a house extremely fast at the expense of higher cost and lower quality.'

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andrewliebchen
The project form is disappointing. Unprecedented building methods should
result in a building that looks like nothing that came before it.

Ironic too that the building was designed on paper with such romantic
rendering of the elevation.

~~~
davorb
If you look at the first iron bridges in the world, you will see that they
were all built the way wooden bridges were built -- expect using iron. The
[Iron
Bridge]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Bridge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Iron_Bridge))
is built with woodworking joints.

It took us a lot of years to master and discover new construction techniques.

~~~
andrewliebchen
We didn't have computers to do static analysis or form-finding. Construction
with new materials was necessarily conservative.

Concrete (or cement in this case) is hardly a new material. The method of
assembly is, and the fact remains that this tech has the potential to do
amazing things. I'm not sure what this Disney recreation is trying
demonstrate.

Now that the difficult challenge of getting the device working has been met, I
hope the inventor will tackle more...for instance, how does the device
actually create an enclosure.

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lafar6502
Brilliant mind

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edmack
This man is my hero.

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afafsd
Big deal, we've been "3D printing" buildings by hand for centuries.

How does 3D printing work? You lay down layers of grains of your material and
sinter or otherwise stick them together, and build up an arbitrary structure
that way.

Well in the building case, you use grains called "bricks", stick them together
not by sintering but with mortar, but you still build an arbitrarily-shaped
(within the limits of what will stay up) structure from a uniform store of
material. Just replace the printing head with a bricklayer, who is probably
just as fast and cheaper than a robot anyway.

The Byzantines managed to 3D print the Hagia Sofia in three years nearly
seventeen centuries ago, and it's still standing.

~~~
goostavos
Ah, I see we're still doing the "top dismissive comment" thing around here.
Good to know.

Computers? Bah! We've been "computing" for centuries.

How does it work? You take a pencil and paper -- or a pen (should you be
feeling bold), and you write out the computations one by one, and build up a
result that way.

Pythagoras managed to compute that the square of the hypotenuse is equal to
the sum of the squares of the other two sides, and that rule still stands.

