You are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

0
3

[–] Gumbatron 0 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago 

Not sure exactly how you would "Print" a house that would pass any sort of structural standards used in the developed world. The ones I've seen look to be basically a computer controlled concrete extruder, they create the building by extruding brick thickness layers of concrete around. But that will just get you a wall without any sort of reinforcing. And, who would want to live in a concrete shell that has all the charm of a Soviet era apartment.

The bigger innovations and improvements will come with pre-fabricated homes. There will be much automation there, but not really "3D Printing" sort of stuff. More like CNC for houses. These create precision constructed sections of the building (with plumbing and electrical already installed) that can be very quickly erected at the construction site. There has already been quite a lot of work on this so far. The key to it will be the precision construction of the foundations to put them on, if the foundations aren't right, the building won't fit properly.

The use of CNC isn't just limited to standard style construction. You can also get precision cut timber framed houses. These are pretty much just a really big jig saw puzzle that you slot together and put in the pins (provided that you don't leave your parts out in the weather for them to warp and twist :-)).

0
0

[–] slwsnowman40 ago 

And, who would want to live in a concrete shell that has all the charm of a Soviet era apartment.

If the building can withstand a hurricane, there's a whole lot of people in Florida that would love it. And they would only look like Soviet block housing during construction. Pre-fab homes, and I'm including trailer/mobile homes in this, have been around for decades and haven't become too popular.