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A house 3D printed from raw earth

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Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#151

Post by Glawen »

CyberDildonics wrote: post #74
surgeryres wrote: post #51

Yet another example of the over-hype of “3D Printing”. Yes it’s neat that they collected some local dirt, mixed it with some non-locally sourced water and binder, and poured it into an extruder run on some kind of non locally sourced energy, then sprayed it with some protective coating - it baffles me that people see this as a possible mainstream building technique. Running electrical, plumbing, air conditioning etc…

> Running electrical, plumbing, air conditioning etc through this structure is doable but much harder, You realize there are lots of brick houses out there and those things aren't run through the brick walls either right? 2x4 dimensional lumber framing is used inside and those are run through the studs.

I live in a brick house in Europe, and my plumbing and wire do run in the walls.

I just cut the wall, run my wires inside and cover with plaster.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#152

Post by mdorazio »

m0llusk wrote: post #130

It seems strange that there is so much focus on 3D printing structures. Any close look at where the costs go in home construction can easily verify that foundations and services (power, water, sewage) are where the majority of the costs are. It always makes sense to pinch pennies, but starting with one of the smallest line items limits potential improvement. What we really need are ongoing improvements to modular ser…

Yup. Foundation, services, and interiors are your big line items. The shell tends to be both cheap and very quick to build with common materials.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#154

Post by soperj »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #67
doh wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is plenty of land, just not in desirable locations. But if you could build infrastructure easily and with speed, maybe those locations can be transformed too. Up until last 40 years ago people didn't want to live on the ocean. Now they can't get enough. US has a huge swaths of land empty, especially in the Pacific Northwest.

>Up until last 40 years ago people didn't want to live on the ocean. Now they can't get enough. US has a huge swaths of land empty, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Can you expand on this please? What do you mean by 'people didn't want to live on the ocean' and also, what do you mean by 'vast swaths of empty land in the PNW'. Are you talking east of the cascades? I don't think there is a whole lot of land there w…

The entire west coast of Washington state is pretty well uninhabited, as well as anything West of Port Angeles to Neah Bay.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#156

Post by throwawayboise »

kube-system wrote: post #118
JAlexoid wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sewage is absolutely NOT a problem for a single story houses. No large sewage pipes are installed in the walls of all single story houses.

Sometimes they are. My house is single story and has sewage pipes in the walls. Regardless of whether that is a requirement, the pipes have to go through some part of the structure to get to the outside, regardless of whether that's a wall, floor, foundation, etc.

Yes but GP said large pipes, e.g. for a toilet or the main pipe that connects to the municipal sewer. In a single-story house these would be under the floor. Pipes in the walls of a single-story house would be sink drains or vent pipes, and are narrower.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#157

Post by throwawayboise »

cheschire wrote: post #129
kube-system wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need a new construction methodology to fix a materials problem. A specialized construction methodology makes the problem worse, because they often require very specific materials. My 3D printer is compatible with ~5 very specific types of plastic. Traditional construction can be done with plastics, metals, masonry, wood, composites, and many others.

I didn't imply that 3d printing should fix the materials problem, I simply hope that the materials problem gives 3d printed housing enough room financially to achieve economies of scale to bring the prices down for those situations where 3d printed houses are specifically relevant. Consider as one example low income areas that are filled with housing built in the 40's and 50's which can now be razed and replaced with…

Unless those houses are irretrievably dilapidated and neglected, why raze them? Seems more sustainable to re-use something that's already there.

Agree that some areas like Detroit that have houses that have been abandonded, scavanged, vandalized, and left open to the elements for years are in most cases not salvagable.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#158

Post by dalbasal »

ogre_codes wrote: post #141
nanna wrote: post #86

Lots of unfair negativity here. I think this is wonderful. HN is full of random hacked-up tech that will never solve the worlds problems but nonetheless give a glimpse at what alternatives could look like. Experiments. This is what this is, and in my opinion it's stunning and I would move into one in an instant.

There are better ways to build affordable housing already. You make a factory that builds prefabricated panels then deliver them onsite. With prefab, you don’t need to transport an expensive piece of equipment to remote parts of the world and have onsite experts there to supervise and repair it. You don’t have to deal with tear down and setup of the equipment at every site and installers have predictable channels to…

This is besides the point, to the extent that it's not just wrong.

The goal here is obviously to build an experimental building, and isn't even explicitly related to affordable housing. Meanwhile, this building method produces a different building to the one you suggest. It's an irrelevant comparison for that reason alone, but there are lots. What if the factory is far away? The fact that transport needs are totally different is actually useful.

Also, what's with this static mindset? Don't you think there are no new building methods to be had?

Personally, I'm quite interested in these printed structures. They're not ready for major use yet, maybe they won't ever be. Practicability will (or won't) be proven when large projects are attempted. You need small projects first.

TLDR, of course they could have just parked an RV there. That's not the point.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#159

Post by dalbasal »

judge2020 wrote: post #108
nanna wrote: post #86

Lots of unfair negativity here. I think this is wonderful. HN is full of random hacked-up tech that will never solve the worlds problems but nonetheless give a glimpse at what alternatives could look like. Experiments. This is what this is, and in my opinion it's stunning and I would move into one in an instant.

HN worries about the hard problems because they're real challenges that need to be solved before any improvements reach the wider market.

Nonsense. HN worries (enjoys, rather) problems that appeal to them. Linux running on a pen. A new programming framework demonstrates an abstract point. Etc.

What HN is doing here is internalizing cliches, responding to hyperbole/tropes they (we) assume is in the article. Also, the artsy-philosphical terms used by architects pisses off nerds. "Humane Architecture" and whatnot.

This is HN being silly, not HN being smart. We do both here.

Meanwhile, how is transporting materials vs equipment a Hard Problem?

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#160

Post by throwawayboise »

agotterer wrote: post #119
cheschire wrote: post #40

I hope 3D printing homes will take off now that lumber prices are so ridiculous. The sudden cost increases in other materials will now hopefully give 3d printing space to achieve economies of scale. Imagine homes that are printed with a 20 year life expectancy. Especially in America where I don't know many families that remain in the same house for 20 years. We could start going to the Japanese model of razing the ho…

Is anyone trying to make homes out of plastic lumber? Like the material from the Trex decks and Polywood tables. My understand is that those are 100% recycled materials, solid, and a decent alternative to wood.

A friend has a deck made of Trex (or some similar brand) and it's disintegrating. Needs to be completely rebuilt. The stuff doesn't hold up outdoors. Might be OK for structural framing that is kept dry under a roof and inside walls, if it compares to similar sized wood lumber in terms of strength in both shear and compression.
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