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New Story's first 3D-printed houses are now complete
- walrus01 7y agoI'm curious how they are bridging the gaps for windows and doors. I imagine toothpaste consistency concrete doesn't hang in the air very well. Or at least not nearly as well as thin, hot, stringy PLA, ABS or TPU filament coming out of the nozzle of a common 3d printer.
- KukicAdnan 7y ago3D Printers usually have support columns that are easily taken down once the print is complete. Maybe something similar?
- walrus01 7y agoRight, I've done this with auto generated supports in Cura for PLA and ABS fused deposition printing. Removed with needle nose pliers. But if done with semi liquid concrete wouldn't it cure together and become very difficult to break apart ? https://m.all3dp.com/2/cura-support-settings-optimize-your-supports/ https://m.all3dp.com/2/cura-support-settings-optimize-your-s... Looking at the photos of the houses, I wonder if they pause the printer at the point just before where it needs to draw the first layer above the top of the window frame. At that point a couple of workers manually lift the prefab window unit into place. Then the printer can resume and print that next layer on top of the top of the window frame.
- wahern 7y agoThey manually add headers for spanning openings and leave them in place. You can see here: https://youtu.be/is2UVodNphY?t=37 https://youtu.be/is2UVodNphY?t=37 That said, wooden and, more recently, foam forms have been used since forever. (At least a hundred years?) Breaking the forms away from cured concrete doesn't seem to be problematic. EDIT: Also, in another video there's a brief shot where the machine is printing the internal zig-zag pattern over a steel mesh manually placed on the wall, presumably for reinforcement. I fast-forwarded through 4 or 5 videos and it's almost suspicious the way they avoid capturing these details. I guess such details don't fit the narrative they're selling.
- walrus01 7y agoThey really show only very brief glimpses of the actual printing process. Not even 1/100th of the linear extruded length of a single layer before the video cuts to something different.
- parineum 7y agoI think that answers my question of how it's seismically sound. There's got to be something in there that supports horizontal forces.
- wahern 7y agoFWIW, they show the mesh in the first few seconds of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCzS2FZoB-I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCzS2FZoB-I Personally I think they should emphasize the manual labor requirements. One of the strongest criticisms of 3D-printed and prefab housing technology is that it reduces demand for low-skilled labor. For the past 80 years home construction has been a major pillar of the American labor economy; likewise for China and many other countries. Free or reduced cost housing is great, but to the extent it comes at the expense of a sustainable labor economy, then it's problematic.
- joshuaheard 7y agoThe openings look "U" shaped, and filled with the window frame and topped with vent tiles. It doesn't look like any support is needed as those are probably added after the print dries.
- altacc 7y agoFrom glimpses in photos & videos it looks like humans are involved at various stages of production, including putting metal plates across the gaps for doors & windows.
- jcims 7y agoThey put a pre-cast bridge over the opening and continue over top of it.
- altacc 7y agoReally interesting idea and potentially a great benefit. I do find it funny that they decorated the house in a very American/European style. That works great for press photos aimed at US investors, but I wonder how all that will fare given the high traffic & use that occur in small dwellings.
- injidup 7y agoHow is this cheaper than shipping in prefab blocks and bolting them together? There are lots of claims about it being low cost and affordable but little data to explain why.
- joe_the_user 7y agoWell, a manufactured home in the US can be quite affordable. Of course, in "many locations" (oh gaw, I'm in California) permitting, utility hook-ups, land and so-forth adds so much that the cost of just assembling the physical house isn't that important. Of course, this is Mexico, so I assume the equation is different. But in Mexico, at least they'll let you live in a shack-I-mean-tiny-house, so I assume this has to be somewhat competitive.
- Tepix 7y agoThere aren't many claims of lower cost in the article. There is only one mention of cost. I'm wondering about the cost as well. The possibility of using local materials for a 3d printer is enticing, however.
- notahacker 7y agoI find it hard to believe it is, frankly, particularly when you take into account the highly specialised equipment and apparently a large rain shield that need to be setup beforehand. Less trendy modern methods of construction can deliver things like fully-fitted bathrooms to sites. I'd have thought the virtues of 3D printing as a construction technique are much more to do with precision forming of unusual shapes tbh, which is the other end of the market.
- jcims 7y agoProbably not cheaper yet. But it could be logistically simpler. The whole thing would fit on a truck, source local concrete and you're basically done with the frame. Windows/doors/mechanicals/finishes still need solved for of course. Seems like they are just doing R&D at this point though.
- lnsru 7y agoThis here is low cost and affordable: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattenbau https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattenbau Almost 100 years ago Germans discovered the way of cheap building. The first houses are still used according recent documentary. This 3D printing might be novel, but basically they move their factory each time for a new house while Plattenbau factory must be installed once. Plus Plattenbau has canals for cables and already installed windows and doors. Plus Plattenbau can be a high building. I live in one from 1965, it’s really shitty. Insulation between concrete layers is gone, you can hear TV of the neighbors and it’s cold in winter.
- abdullahkhalids 7y agoAny information on how soundproof these houses are? What is the expected lifetime? Maintenance costs compared to traditional houses? How difficult is it to repair the walls with traditional materials? Edit: Waterproof? Earthquake proof?
- walrus01 7y agoThe closest traditional construction low-cost design I can think of, which is somewhat common in Mexico, is built from concrete blocks like this: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/contentlab.studiod/getty/34565dbc533a4fbda21a58898585fc06.jpg https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/contentlab.studiod/getty/...
- al3xandre 7y agoThis is actually higher cost than your typical American house, which is just built with panels of wood put together haha
- walrus01 7y agoI think this will vary greatly by region. In places where lumber is cheap and plentiful we have the typical American stick built house. But it would be difficult to find a house in Rawalpindi, Pakistan that isn't composed from some combination of locally made small bricks, concrete blocks, concrete and cement. I know a number of people that had never seen drywall, the building material, before immigrating to north america.
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- abdullahkhalids 7y agoOne reason people make houses out of brick/concrete in poorer regions, is that there are many people living in the same house. And wood houses are terrible at being soundproof, while brick/concrete houses are great at it. Only in North America have I been told that I woke someone up in the middle of the night because I opened a door or got a glass of water from across the house because the house creaks and drums when you walk across it.
- incantations 7y agoif this american ceo thinks this will stop mexico's endless invasion on his country, then he's dead wrong. what a waste.
- trianglem 7y agoThis does not belong here.
- incantations 7y agohmm? why not
- trianglem 7y agoDoes it leave room for electrical and plumbing? Sounds like they still have to pour the slab manually.
- TulliusCicero 7y agoNeat, though I'm a bit skeptical about its utility outside of rural areas. Particularly in the US, the problem with housing affordability is mostly in booming metros where people want to live in already developed areas, the most expensive part is often the land, instead of the house, so you really need density/verticality to make a dent in affordability.
- ptah 7y agoany plans to use traditional adobe?
- drsim 7y agoCool. But completely not a solution to affordable housing construction in rural areas. What is the barrier to affordable housing construction in rural areas? Where I traveled in Uganda it was availability and affordability of materials and equipment. Cement was expensive as was corrugated roofing. Renting heavy equipment was expensive. We had plentiful cheap unskilled labour, free bricks made from clay soil baked in the sun, lots of hand tools and a foreman with basic construction skills. Transportation was slow but not prohibitively expensive. I hope this 3D printing technique is simply a way of waving a flag to draw attention to the need for better housing in these communities. There are many much better MVPs than an expensive machine using expensive materials operated by an expensive team.
- logfromblammo 7y agoIn Uganda, it is legal to use cheap construction methods, like wattle-and-daub using cow dung, and thatch roofing. Appropriate technology there is a hand-press for making TIB-style mortarless interlocking bricks from local dirt. (I have heard that Ugandan brick masons use way too much mortar anyway.) The test site was likely in Mexico because building codes in the US have no provision for establishment and testing of new technology that is too far removed from existing construction techniques, such as inflation forms lined with rebar and sprayed with shotcrete, or 3D-printed corrugated-interior concrete walls. If the machine built 50 houses in the US, none of them could get certificates of occupancy from the inspectors. The end goal is likely not to house the poor around the world, but to establish building codes that advantage the first-movers in printed-concrete home construction, so the patent-holders can build houses in the US that can be finish-ready for $5000, install windows, doors, electrical, and plumbing with assembly-line labor, and then sell for $75000.
- CWuestefeld 7y agoIf the machine built 50 houses in the US, none of them could get certificates of occupancy from the inspectors. I agree with your concerns over the way regulation gets us stuck in a rut. But from TFA: "The same technology could also help transform the construction of affordable housing in the United States. Earlier this year, Icon printed a welcome center for a master-planned community in Austin, Texas, designed for people who have been chronically homeless, and the company is beginning to print 400-square-foot homes in the community that will be completed in early 2020."
- squarefoot 7y ago"The printer works by squirting a concrete mixture in layers to build floors and walls." Is that one a special type of concrete? In places where earthquakes occur I would expect some kind of reinforcement to that concrete mixture, or it would crumble very easily at the first hit, but from the article it doesn't seem they're adding iron bars or any similar reinforcement.
- bluGill 7y agoThe article did say they did additional seismic testing, so that is hopeful they will stand up.
- thefounder 7y agoI don't want to downplay the good work they do but I can't stop thinking that these people are guinea pigs for the technology. Now, considering their initial housing they can't really complain.
- aaron695 7y agoThis clearly makes no sense.... but I'd like to see it go on. I think since donors have to feel good about themselves they won't just donate concrete and bricks. And since NGO's can't build houses that are not up to code they can't just use local labour. So this might work. Earthship houses have shown after decades of having a cheap house design with cheap materials, that's not enough to solve the problem. Watch the docos read between the lines. The actual benefit here might even be the fact the NGO makes the government give land titles for under the houses.
- iamthepieman 7y agoThey seem like such simple structures. I could build one of those out of rammed earth or cob in the time it takes to put up the rain shield. Cheap housing (especially in rural areas) is a solved problem. Cheap, legal, socially acceptable, housing is not.
- swiley 7y agoWe need Uber but for brick layers.
- ape4 7y agoI guess the attractive new plants out front are 3D printed too
- bluGill 7y agoI looked into this a few years ago. I discovered that even if I can build the 3d printer myself for free (including time), wood structures are still cheaper than the concrete. The only reason you would choose this over something else is if you want a unique shape that is impossible to do in wood. I wanted to build a cheap shed, but this was one of the more expensive options, and it didn't really save any labor either.
- sadness2 7y agoA lot questions about cost, but nobody is talking about speed. They said the frame was both fabricated and erected in 24 hours. That's a big one-up on prefab.
- lobo_tuerto 7y agoThey never mention WHERE in Mexico is that rural town exactly, not even the state name. They only say it's in the south. Weird.