7 ms·

3-D printing new houses in a Mexican village

43 points by ejstronge 5y ago

greesil 5y ago
I always have to wonder if these 3d printed homes are insulated enough. I guess you could design some dead space and print some insulation in it, something like a dual extruder setup.
- Turing_Machine 5y ago
  Just the dead air space might be good enough, in this case. This is southeastern Mexico, not Manitoba. You could always just blow the wall cavity full of foam or pellets, if you really needed the insulation.
  - kragen 5y ago
    Or shredded phone books, newspaper, dandelion seeds, straw, scraps from cutting clothing, fiberglass, foamed sodium silicate, wadded-up aluminum foil, crushed lightweight firebrick, charcoal, sawdust, concrete foamed with detergent, LECA, pumice, vermiculite, perlite, rockwool, wood chips, palo borracho pod silk, cottonwood cotton, dry leaves, etc. Some of these would need to be treated with fire retardant, though being encased in concrete would cut down on the fire risk.
- acd 5y ago
  You can always make air spaced insulation layers and fill the airgap with rockwool. Considering global warming this would probably be a good idea. Houses in Mexico are tradionally made of rock/concrete and act like a heat battery. Ie houses caputure heat during day and cold air during night traps that in rock like heat battery. Houses in Mexico from the 70s are surprisingly cool yet requieres no air conditioning. Mexico needs some home insulation during coldest winter months.
- mdp2021 5y ago
  More precisely, how much the material acts as a thermal bridge. The issue is not with the gaps - they are the manageable part -, but with the printed parts conductive and close enough to the external.
a1371 5y ago
There are varying opinions about 3D printed buildings. When I was new in this industry, I thought they are the future. Even approached the UOSC for a position, but as the time went on, I understood how my tech background was influencing that thought process. 3D printing offers little advantage over prefabrication, yet it comes with many costs, biggest of which is embodied carbon from all the concrete pouring. NASA has the right mindset to pursue it on other planets, on earth our housing issues first come from archaic design and permitting processes.
- TaylorAlexander 5y ago
  I love 3D printing. I have seven 3D printers and have designed a bunch of 3D printed robots. But there is too much unreasonable buzz around 3D printed homes. Too many news stories act like this machine will somehow solve homelessness or some other breathless claim. My contractor friend told me framing a house is cheap. It’s all the finishing work that makes a home expensive, and 3D printed homes still need that. Meanwhile I saw a 3 story apartment building that went up in Berkeley in two days because it was made of modules from China. It seems like homes made in a factory make way more sense than 3D printed ones. Edit: I don’t want to be too negative. I can’t read the article due to paywall and I don’t know a lot about the technology. Certainly some reporting on this tech is absurd but the concept may have merit in time.
  - JKCalhoun 5y ago
    > Too many news stories act like this machine will somehow solve homelessness or some other breathless claim. Could make blue-collar workers in the construction industry homeless when they lose their jobs. Some manual-labor jobs we should want to keep.
    - toomuchtodo 5y ago
      Ahh, but that’s an allocation problem. The goal should be people are housed regardless of the consistency of their work and income. Like others in this thread have mentioned, the problem isn’t 3D printing versus factory fab, it’s the economic model on top of the physical system.
ur-whale 5y ago
https://archive.md/BxdfB https://archive.md/BxdfB
Jabbles 5y ago
I recently saw this video that aims to cut through the hype that 3D printing houses seems to generate. Although the potential is cool, there are a lot of unsolved problems: https://youtu.be/sz1LM9kwRLY https://youtu.be/sz1LM9kwRLY
- emacsen 5y ago
  I came on the comments looking for Belinda Carr. She also debunks other fads like container homes, reusing malls, and investigates materials such as aerogel, new types of engineered wood, etc.
- sgerenser 5y ago
  Was going to post this link but someone beat me to it. I feel like even saying “the potential is cool” overstates the usefulness/feasibility of 3D printed housing.
aaron695 5y ago
I don't know why 3D concrete printers for statues is not a thing. Raw cement in location is fairly cheap and easy to acquire. Transporting statues is very expensive. I know it's hard to smooth, but I still like the style of the Seldon statue in Foundation - https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i175/PaulLev/Screen_Shot_2021-10-01_at_2.59.20_AM.png https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i175/PaulLev/Screen_S... I think as a style it will date quickly, but it's cool now. And there must be solutions to make the resolution finer? Housing problems are not really about costs 3D printing will fix, as many articles will teach you. 3D printing in concrete is probably more about creating things that currently can't be done. I can't buy a cool dragon statue from GoT. And people can't quickly adapt design's for things like livestock feeding troughs. Or tricky pre-made foundations made in concrete, create something to allow the poor to quickly build their own 'shack'
iandanforth 5y ago
Automation is great when there is a labor shortage. In this case just give people money. Maybe you won't get houses built in 24 hours, but you also won't be air dropping boring, repetitive, experimental architecture on a community.
blunte 5y ago
"You’ve reached your limit of free articles." Bullshit. I never follow NYT links because I don't like their paywall. This time I was just too curious, so I did. I figured I would have to create an account. Long ago, on another computer, I actually paid for NYT. I discovered that 99.9% of the articles were completely uninteresting to me, so I tried to cancel. At that time (just a few years ago), it was actually impossible to cancel online. All roads led to an 800 number. Fortunately Paypal lets you cut off a recurring payment, so I gave NYT the finger and moved on. I get wanting money to operate, and I'm willing to pay for useful information. What I do not like is shady practices. I hope someday they get their shit together and figure out how to make money while providing useful content _without_ resorting to anti-consumer practices.
- lostgame 5y ago
  I am consistently infuriated by HN’s baffling insistence on supporting paywalled articles. I’ve recently had a similar issue with the Toronto Star. Cancelling was a bloody nightmare. Honestly - if you post a news article here to HN, it should be able to be read by everyone. Without having to hack around it. Beyond the shady practices of these journalism subscription sites; it’s also just ethically on brand for HN - who’s largely part of the open source crowd - many of whom support Sci-Hub, etc - to post paywalled links. dang has tried to defend their perspective themselves in comments to me personally; but I sincerely believe (and am allowed to have and express the opinion) - that it’s bullshit no matter what. A lot of people fight the fight in this community that information should be free - and supporting shady journalism companies, and intentionally limiting readership by not auto-posting an non-paywalled alternative doesn’t really help anyone.
  - chrisaiv 5y ago
    http://archive.today/BxdfB http://archive.today/BxdfB
- smusamashah 5y ago
  You can simply block their cookies. I blocked Medium cookies which hasn't shut the door on me since then.
notum 5y ago
I find it hilarious to see common FDM 3D printer problems scaled up, such as layer adhesion, zits and blobs. Not taking away from the technology or success of the application, it just tickled my funny bone.
SkeuomorphicBee 5y ago
3D printing is inherently a solution to low-volume problems (e.g. prototyping, or specialized parts for niche industries). Once the desired number of units grows, it is always better to instead build a dedicated production line. So, this recent push for 3D printing houses is a bit counter productive, we need to produce large number of houses, so factories are the way to go.
jerich 5y ago
What about 3-D printing for backyard hardscape for higher-end consumers, not homes for refugees? Mass customization for benches, sculptures, playhouses, fountains. The value is in getting something unique, not speed or cost. Or does that only make sense after my getting a $4k quote to build a rectangular concrete bench in coastal California? (Actually, I just went back and checked—it was $14.5k for an 18 foot concrete block bench with a plaster finish to look like poured concrete, with an actual concrete version even more expensive). I made an outline of a business doing this a few years ago: sell yard printers, proprietary media, and object library digital subscriptions to contractors, along with training/certification, but I never went down the rabbit hole to figure out a cement mixture and scale up my Ender-3.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

43 points by ejstronge 5y ago

I always have to wonder if these 3d printed homes are insulated enough. I guess you could design some dead space and print some insulation in it, something like a dual extruder setup.

Turing_Machine 5y ago
Just the dead air space might be good enough, in this case. This is southeastern Mexico, not Manitoba. You could always just blow the wall cavity full of foam or pellets, if you really needed the insulation.
- kragen 5y ago
  Or shredded phone books, newspaper, dandelion seeds, straw, scraps from cutting clothing, fiberglass, foamed sodium silicate, wadded-up aluminum foil, crushed lightweight firebrick, charcoal, sawdust, concrete foamed with detergent, LECA, pumice, vermiculite, perlite, rockwool, wood chips, palo borracho pod silk, cottonwood cotton, dry leaves, etc. Some of these would need to be treated with fire retardant, though being encased in concrete would cut down on the fire risk.
acd 5y ago
You can always make air spaced insulation layers and fill the airgap with rockwool. Considering global warming this would probably be a good idea. Houses in Mexico are tradionally made of rock/concrete and act like a heat battery. Ie houses caputure heat during day and cold air during night traps that in rock like heat battery. Houses in Mexico from the 70s are surprisingly cool yet requieres no air conditioning. Mexico needs some home insulation during coldest winter months.
mdp2021 5y ago
More precisely, how much the material acts as a thermal bridge. The issue is not with the gaps - they are the manageable part -, but with the printed parts conductive and close enough to the external.

a1371 5y ago

There are varying opinions about 3D printed buildings. When I was new in this industry, I thought they are the future. Even approached the UOSC for a position, but as the time went on, I understood how my tech background was influencing that thought process. 3D printing offers little advantage over prefabrication, yet it comes with many costs, biggest of which is embodied carbon from all the concrete pouring. NASA has the right mindset to pursue it on other planets, on earth our housing issues first come from archaic design and permitting processes.

TaylorAlexander 5y ago
I love 3D printing. I have seven 3D printers and have designed a bunch of 3D printed robots. But there is too much unreasonable buzz around 3D printed homes. Too many news stories act like this machine will somehow solve homelessness or some other breathless claim. My contractor friend told me framing a house is cheap. It’s all the finishing work that makes a home expensive, and 3D printed homes still need that. Meanwhile I saw a 3 story apartment building that went up in Berkeley in two days because it was made of modules from China. It seems like homes made in a factory make way more sense than 3D printed ones. Edit: I don’t want to be too negative. I can’t read the article due to paywall and I don’t know a lot about the technology. Certainly some reporting on this tech is absurd but the concept may have merit in time.
- JKCalhoun 5y ago
  > Too many news stories act like this machine will somehow solve homelessness or some other breathless claim. Could make blue-collar workers in the construction industry homeless when they lose their jobs. Some manual-labor jobs we should want to keep.
  - toomuchtodo 5y ago
    Ahh, but that’s an allocation problem. The goal should be people are housed regardless of the consistency of their work and income. Like others in this thread have mentioned, the problem isn’t 3D printing versus factory fab, it’s the economic model on top of the physical system.

ur-whale 5y ago

https://archive.md/BxdfB https://archive.md/BxdfB

Jabbles 5y ago

I recently saw this video that aims to cut through the hype that 3D printing houses seems to generate. Although the potential is cool, there are a lot of unsolved problems: https://youtu.be/sz1LM9kwRLY https://youtu.be/sz1LM9kwRLY

emacsen 5y ago
I came on the comments looking for Belinda Carr. She also debunks other fads like container homes, reusing malls, and investigates materials such as aerogel, new types of engineered wood, etc.
sgerenser 5y ago
Was going to post this link but someone beat me to it. I feel like even saying “the potential is cool” overstates the usefulness/feasibility of 3D printed housing.

aaron695 5y ago

I don't know why 3D concrete printers for statues is not a thing. Raw cement in location is fairly cheap and easy to acquire. Transporting statues is very expensive. I know it's hard to smooth, but I still like the style of the Seldon statue in Foundation - https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i175/PaulLev/Screen_Shot_2021-10-01_at_2.59.20_AM.png https://hosting.photobucket.com/images/i175/PaulLev/Screen_S... I think as a style it will date quickly, but it's cool now. And there must be solutions to make the resolution finer? Housing problems are not really about costs 3D printing will fix, as many articles will teach you. 3D printing in concrete is probably more about creating things that currently can't be done. I can't buy a cool dragon statue from GoT. And people can't quickly adapt design's for things like livestock feeding troughs. Or tricky pre-made foundations made in concrete, create something to allow the poor to quickly build their own 'shack'

iandanforth 5y ago

Automation is great when there is a labor shortage. In this case just give people money. Maybe you won't get houses built in 24 hours, but you also won't be air dropping boring, repetitive, experimental architecture on a community.

blunte 5y ago

"You’ve reached your limit of free articles." Bullshit. I never follow NYT links because I don't like their paywall. This time I was just too curious, so I did. I figured I would have to create an account. Long ago, on another computer, I actually paid for NYT. I discovered that 99.9% of the articles were completely uninteresting to me, so I tried to cancel. At that time (just a few years ago), it was actually impossible to cancel online. All roads led to an 800 number. Fortunately Paypal lets you cut off a recurring payment, so I gave NYT the finger and moved on. I get wanting money to operate, and I'm willing to pay for useful information. What I do not like is shady practices. I hope someday they get their shit together and figure out how to make money while providing useful content _without_ resorting to anti-consumer practices.

lostgame 5y ago
I am consistently infuriated by HN’s baffling insistence on supporting paywalled articles. I’ve recently had a similar issue with the Toronto Star. Cancelling was a bloody nightmare. Honestly - if you post a news article here to HN, it should be able to be read by everyone. Without having to hack around it. Beyond the shady practices of these journalism subscription sites; it’s also just ethically on brand for HN - who’s largely part of the open source crowd - many of whom support Sci-Hub, etc - to post paywalled links. dang has tried to defend their perspective themselves in comments to me personally; but I sincerely believe (and am allowed to have and express the opinion) - that it’s bullshit no matter what. A lot of people fight the fight in this community that information should be free - and supporting shady journalism companies, and intentionally limiting readership by not auto-posting an non-paywalled alternative doesn’t really help anyone.
- chrisaiv 5y ago
  http://archive.today/BxdfB http://archive.today/BxdfB
smusamashah 5y ago
You can simply block their cookies. I blocked Medium cookies which hasn't shut the door on me since then.

notum 5y ago

I find it hilarious to see common FDM 3D printer problems scaled up, such as layer adhesion, zits and blobs. Not taking away from the technology or success of the application, it just tickled my funny bone.

SkeuomorphicBee 5y ago

3D printing is inherently a solution to low-volume problems (e.g. prototyping, or specialized parts for niche industries). Once the desired number of units grows, it is always better to instead build a dedicated production line. So, this recent push for 3D printing houses is a bit counter productive, we need to produce large number of houses, so factories are the way to go.

jerich 5y ago

What about 3-D printing for backyard hardscape for higher-end consumers, not homes for refugees? Mass customization for benches, sculptures, playhouses, fountains. The value is in getting something unique, not speed or cost. Or does that only make sense after my getting a $4k quote to build a rectangular concrete bench in coastal California? (Actually, I just went back and checked—it was $14.5k for an 18 foot concrete block bench with a plaster finish to look like poured concrete, with an actual concrete version even more expensive). I made an outline of a business doing this a few years ago: sell yard printers, proprietary media, and object library digital subscriptions to contractors, along with training/certification, but I never went down the rabbit hole to figure out a cement mixture and scale up my Ender-3.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]