

The man who prints houses - rberger
http://www.3dprinter.net/man-who-prints-houses

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willyt
While it's quite interesting that someone has made a 3d printer this big. You
can't literally print a house with one of these. Just think about a typical
wall build up, it will be something like this: dry lining, vapour control
layer, insulation, air gap, <magic printed sandstone structure>, waterproofing
and or rain screen. The basics you need are to be able to print a structure
which is waterproof, has a U-Value of 0.2 w/mk, is fire resistant and has some
tensile strength. The material in the OP is 'like sandstone' which is
structurally useful only in compression. So you couldn't print a skyscraper or
Frank Lloyd Wright's 'falling water'. If they could print fibre reinforced
concrete then it wouldn't be so limiting.

Also, bear in mind that the 'shell and core'; the structure, cladding and
primary circulation is generally less than half the cost of the finished
building. E.g. all the HVAC still has to be installed by hand. Innovation in
construction is notoriously slow moving; even quite simple innovations can
take 50 years to be widely adopted. It's also incredibly heavily regulated in
most countries. I think that modular construction is more interesting avenue
to explore. Most buildings are the equivalent of 'spaghetti code' there is
lots of progress that can be made by modularising parts and standardising
interfaces. Architects like Bucknister Fuller, Otto Frei, and others did lots
of interesting work in the 1950's on modularisation but the concept hasn't
developed much since then.

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ajays
Those are all valid concerns, but (and I don't mean this negatively), they
seem to be more "first world" problems. For the majority of the people on this
planet (c.f., Haiti), a sturdy box with a roof itself will be a huge step up.

Imagine an army of robots just toiling away, building a structure per day. The
locals provide sand, and a barrel of ink, and out comes a house. Their very
own house, sturdy enough to survive a hurricane or flooding.

Yes, this isn't perfect, but nothing is at first. Things approach perfection
after several iterations.

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prodigal_erik
That's the most inspiring thing I've seen in quite a while. I wish we could
see it running. I'm sure we'll eventually look back and chuckle at the
equipment he had to start with, but it really sounds like in Dini we're
looking at the next Gutenberg.

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sp332
I think pre-fab houses were the "Gutenberg", and this is more like desktop
publishing.

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spartango
Relevant:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=172Wne1t_2Q>

All in all this is an awesome idea, and its brilliant to see it actually
getting implemented. It's not perfect, but few things are at first.

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X-Istence
I love the idea of printing houses, for cheaper and faster construction. It
could also mean that less waste is produced, less trees are involved, the
whole process could be greener than what it currently is.

I realise that the idea of printing 3D objects on a large industrial scale is
nothing new, but I am still looking forward to seeing the documentary because
without people that are pushing the state of the art further we wouldn't be
where we are today.

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sp332
Man, the future is gonna be _weird_.

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antimora
Have you guys seen this Food Printing?

[http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/24/technology/3D_food_printer/i...](http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/24/technology/3D_food_printer/index.htm)

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adrianparsons
Can you say 'replicator'?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_(Star_Trek)>

~~~
sp332
As long as it's not <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Replicator_%28Stargate%29>
:)

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untitledwiz
When he speaks Italian he swears at one of the workers.

~~~
Luyt
Yup, he shouts 'cazzo', which translates to something like 'you dick!'

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dodo53
I always imagine that future construction of houses will be less like a giant
3d printer larger than the house laying it down, and more like a bunch of
smaller specialised robots building up a structure like ants build a mound or
spiders build a web.

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zafka
This is very cool, does anyone know what the binder is?

