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A house 3D printed from raw earth

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Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#191

Post by rrrrrrrrrrrryan »

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…

Not only are there better ways to build affordable housing, there are better ways to do exactly what the article is describing.

A buddhist monastery in my area managed to build beautiful structures using bricks made from local raw earth. No fancy giant 3D printers necessary.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#192

Post by romwell »

brudgers wrote: post #174
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.

The negativity is no more unwarranted than positivity. Each depends on what problem a person values. In terms of housing the unhoused this doesn’t do anything. In terms of aesthetic possibilities for people with money it provides another option where a wide array of options already exist. In HN terms, this is a “rewritten in Haskell.” It demonstrates someone understands a bit about 3D printing. It demonstrates some i…

Something tells me the same things were said about early automobiles:

* People have been solving transportation for millenia

* Horses and trains are real breakthroughs

* The complexity of logistical chain (gas, mechanics, paved roads) precludes widespread application where transportation is a basic need

* You need a fleet of other machines to keep it full of fuel. Oats won't do.

* It does not demonstrate a better solution to existing problems

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#193

Post by romwell »

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…

>There are better ways to build affordable housing already.

Who'd think that a proof-of-concept doesn't yet compete with existing solutions?

>I suspect the reason this is popular is more because they are aesthetically pleasing

We are talking about places people can live in. Aesthetics matter.

The ability to produce something aesthetically pleasing on the cheap and at scale matters.

There is a reason Soviet architecture is the butt of so many jokes. They were rapidly building post-war, with the idea that those buildings will be replaced in two decades.

Many of those buildings are still there.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#194

Post by burlesona »

Thrymr wrote: post #116
burlesona wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, this is the same technology used to make....... bricks. We used to make homes out of bricks, and we could do that again, now that lumber is expensive.

> We used to make homes out of bricks, and we could do that again Not in areas with earthquake building codes.

1. That’s not strictly true. Masonry construction isn’t impossible in earthquake regions, but it can’t be very tall and has to be reinforced. The details depend on the jurisdiction and building code. As an example consider the vast number of cinderblock commercial and light industrial buildings (mostly 1-2 story) throughout California.

2. Earthquake prone areas are a minority of the surface area of the earth. Suppose just the non-earthquake prone areas shifted significantly toward local masonry as a building material, that should still greatly reduce supply pressure for lumber.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#195

Post by trilinearnz »

My first thought was "Yeah, but I bet it's not really printed, just transported printed prefabs to the site". Nope, it's actually printed on-site!

Second thought is that the interior looks very Star Trek / Star Wars like.

Some confirmation of the non-leakiness of the walls would be good, but otherwise looks extremely promising as a concept.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#196

Post by brudgers »

dalbasal wrote: post #159
judge2020 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 smar…

Doom running on an HP printer is interesting because it is clever and because being clever was reason enough to do it.

This isn’t clever. It is a string of tech buzzwords washed with green buzzwords. Or to put it another way nobody really cares how their house is built. The PHP of construction materials and methods is just as good for just about everyone because what mostly matters is location.

The advantage of materials is the ability to stockpile. Their higher degree of asynchronisity. It is possible to maintain an inventory of prefabricated components.

An on-site machine has vast temporal dependencies. And the most common word in construction might be “delayed”...at least it can feel that way at times.

And no place is more full of surprises than what is underground.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#198

Post by freetime2 »

mbgerring wrote: post #144
vanderZwan wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument is the equivalent of asking in what sense a wheel is novel technology while comparing a car to a horse drawn carriage. It's not about the mud hut. It's about how the mud hut was made .

I am aware that novel techniques for building mud huts are created all the time, and none of those new techniques address the fundamental issue with all of them — this building technique is only suited to single-story buildings on large tracts of land. 3D printing the mud hut doesn’t meaningfully alter that constraint. The “environmental sustainability” gains you get from using on-site materials would be totally eras…

I live in a rural area where the population is declining rapidly. There's plenty of land available for cheap, but actually building a house still very expensive. I think a cheaply built, single story structure on a large tract of land could work very well here, and could possibly help to sustain the local population and quality of life.

I agree we should be building denser to meet demand for housing in cities. But not everyone needs to live in a city.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#200

Post by brudgers »

elihu wrote: post #163
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…

It seems like installing electrical and plumbing could be a lot easier if a 3D printed building was constructed with all the necessary channels for utilities already there in the walls, and all you have to do is feed wires and pipes through the routes and connect everything. Similarly, finish work is simpler if you don't have to put sheet rock up, and can just use the existing wall texture. I think the bigger advanta…

if I'm an architect and my client wants their living room to look like a gothic cathedral

If you were an architect with those kinds of clients you would have a list of potential builders with track records of successfully completing similar work. It’s among the kinds of expertise architects have.

And you would look at this with the jaded cynicism that an architect’s experience inevitably produces...for you will have seen simple concrete pumps break down...seen concrete mixed with extra slump to make it easier to work...and endless product presentations that sounded too good to be true.

And most importantly you would know that right angles are almost always the right answer...

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