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Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

nytimes.com

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Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#31

Post by jpao79 »

danschumann wrote: post #27

What I want is an MVP house (room + bathroom + kitchen), which I can expand ( extra rooms, extra bathrooms, etc ). Normally with construction, when you add stuff, you need to break stuff, but if there could be a modular housing system that would let you expand without destruction, while being competitively priced, I'd do that. In Elon Musk fashion, it would have to be better than a normal house, right? A modular hous…

If you have land and looking at somewhat high-end: https://www.bluhomes.com/homes-landing/origin

These are popular in Tahoe and Napa.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#32

Post by danschumann »

Joeri wrote: post #6

I’ve always found it odd that house construction is so bespoke. All that pouring and sawing and drilling and slathering of raw materials to do one-off designs for houses that are then filled with standardized ikea furniture which fits the custom room shape poorly. Manual labor is too costly for such a bespoke approach. Either we make carpenter and bricklayer robots to do the bespoke work cheaply, or we build homes fr…

If there is one thing technology has been doing, it has been taking things that were once only possible with a large organization, once only possible with lots of knowledge, once only possible with lots of money; and making those things do-able by one person.

Building houses fits a few of those. So it's foreseeable that eventually someone will be able to build a house with an app, for fairly low money, fairly quickly, fairly automated, but it might be many years until it's really that cheap/easy.

A potential stop gap would be like an app that told you every single step how-to build your house: buying, delivering, cutting, etc etc etc, for the millions of edge cases of construction.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#33

Post by cbr »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #23
jgibson wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. Whats the average lifespan of a house? 50-80 years? To me it makes sense to invest the time to optimize design to make best use of the land area. I guess you could still use somewhat standarized parts though, spend more effort in the design phase.

Here in Ithaca, NY, many of the houses standing today were built before Mark Twain wrote Huckleberry Finn. Ironically, they’re among the best housing stock, because unlike many mid-20th century constructions, the older houses are free of asbestos and lead paint.

Huh? People used lead paint widely, and many 100+ year old houses were painted with it.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#34

Post by rtkwe »

mikestew wrote: post #12
Joeri wrote: post #6

I’ve always found it odd that house construction is so bespoke. All that pouring and sawing and drilling and slathering of raw materials to do one-off designs for houses that are then filled with standardized ikea furniture which fits the custom room shape poorly. Manual labor is too costly for such a bespoke approach. Either we make carpenter and bricklayer robots to do the bespoke work cheaply, or we build homes fr…

I’ve always found it odd that house construction is so bespoke. Anything else falls into the dreaded "modular home" category. You know, just one step above a single-wide trailer, at least in the minds of some. Never mind the fact that the only thing separating my ungodly expensive house in Redmond, which sits on a slab, from a modular home is that it was built onsite. "Bespoke"? phhhffft , I can find you a dozen hous…

There are places that do factory assembly of things like framing then ship it out to the job site, google or search youtube for preframed wall factory. It's becoming more popular precisely because labor and time are in short supply.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#35

Post by rm_-rf_slash »

danschumann wrote: post #27

What I want is an MVP house (room + bathroom + kitchen), which I can expand ( extra rooms, extra bathrooms, etc ). Normally with construction, when you add stuff, you need to break stuff, but if there could be a modular housing system that would let you expand without destruction, while being competitively priced, I'd do that. In Elon Musk fashion, it would have to be better than a normal house, right? A modular hous…

I grew up playing The Sims so my ideal housing situation is essentially the same as your comment.

There are companies that build custom manufactured houses, like Carina Construction[1] in Ithaca, NY. I haven’t looked into how modifications like those you mention might work, but the prices are competitive and the modular customization is pretty extensive. All-in-all a good deal, if you don’t mind a house that looks slightly plastic.

[1] https://carinaconstruction.com

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#36

Post by petra »

jpao79 wrote: post #22

It's also gaining popularity in the hotel industry. Inspiring video: http://www.guerdonmodularbuildings.com/modular-now-marriotts... It has many benefits for the construction teams. They can work in a controlled environment, and focus on technical skills versus getting through urban commutes, live in lower cost of living areas (in this case Idaho), all the tools/materials are there, have quality assurance processes,…

Sadly, the job market is pretty simple: when you make a job easier, workers earn less.

And it's true for pre-fab, which replaced unionized trades with automation and non-union factory workers, cutting wages drastically.

One can imagine the salary difference.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#38

Post by noir_lord »

danschumann wrote: post #32
Joeri wrote: post #6

I’ve always found it odd that house construction is so bespoke. All that pouring and sawing and drilling and slathering of raw materials to do one-off designs for houses that are then filled with standardized ikea furniture which fits the custom room shape poorly. Manual labor is too costly for such a bespoke approach. Either we make carpenter and bricklayer robots to do the bespoke work cheaply, or we build homes fr…

If there is one thing technology has been doing, it has been taking things that were once only possible with a large organization, once only possible with lots of knowledge, once only possible with lots of money; and making those things do-able by one person. Building houses fits a few of those. So it's foreseeable that eventually someone will be able to build a house with an app, for fairly low money, fairly quickly…

Huf Haus has been around a while.

I first saw them on Grand Designs where they put up a beautiful house in 7 days. (only thing that had to be done on site was groundworks, the house turned up on a couple of lorries and efficient germans (tautology possibly) put it together, cleaned up and left.

Expensive though.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#39

Post by molszanski »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #37

China has been able to do this for at least 7 yrs now. 30 Story building in 15 days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hdpf-MQM9vY

Yes, they build 30 story building faster then most single family homes take to do the foundation.

Re: Developers are manufacturing prefabricated apartment buildings

#40

Post by ceejayoz »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #29
Joeri wrote: post #6

I’ve always found it odd that house construction is so bespoke. All that pouring and sawing and drilling and slathering of raw materials to do one-off designs for houses that are then filled with standardized ikea furniture which fits the custom room shape poorly. Manual labor is too costly for such a bespoke approach. Either we make carpenter and bricklayer robots to do the bespoke work cheaply, or we build homes fr…

> I’ve always found it odd that house construction is so bespoke. I know very little about building construction but we just bought a new-built in Vienna and very little of that seems bespoke. The entire construction is largely made from standardized prefab elements (I think there are around 130 units in here).

Yeah, even the high-end new developments around here seem to be made up of a repeating set of 4-6 different standardized designs to pick from.
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