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The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

cnn.com

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Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#41

Post by tempoponet »

gambiting wrote: post #13
klyrs wrote: post #6

What I love about modern housing is that it's built out of modular parts that I can buy from the hardware store and fix myself. 3d prints are notoriously unrepairable; if there's an earthquake will houses like this fracture in a way that the entire thing is scrap?

Presumably, long term these kinds of printers would be ubiquitous, so you just pop into your nearest hardware store, give them the CAD file or a picture of what you want and they just print you a replacement. But obviously like with any new technology it's the initial bit which might be painful.

How do you figure? We're talking about the structure of a home, not a modular component of one. A 3d printed car frame would be impractical to replace, let alone the side of a house.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#42

Post by gambiting »

tempoponet wrote: post #41
gambiting wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably, long term these kinds of printers would be ubiquitous, so you just pop into your nearest hardware store, give them the CAD file or a picture of what you want and they just print you a replacement. But obviously like with any new technology it's the initial bit which might be painful.

How do you figure? We're talking about the structure of a home, not a modular component of one. A 3d printed car frame would be impractical to replace, let alone the side of a house.

Sure, but if I make a hole in the side of my house I don't need to replace the entire wall - I can patch it up. I'm sure the same is true here?

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#43

Post by pavel_lishin »

Swizec wrote: post #38
dghlsakjg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way. Especially with a promo piece like this so short on details. If you’ve watched a house, or any structure, go up, you know that building the basic structure happens remarkably quickly. This seems to replace framing, roofing and siding. Maybe drywall too? But you still have all of the expensive/slow stuff like plumbing, electrical and finish carpentry that still has to be done.

> But you still have all of the expensive/slow stuff like plumbing, electrical and finish carpentry that still has to be done. I did some research on modular construction recently to use in a talk about modular software design. This tech is getting really cool! You can nowadays get hotel modules that are full pre-built suites. Comes with all the plumbing, electricals, even furniture. Bed and everything already bolted…

> I’m sure similarly pre-fab modular family homes exist.

They've existed for longer than I've been alive, and they're called "mobile homes" - but they have a bad reputation.

Actually, sorry, I'm wrong - they're not modular in the way you describe.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#44

Post by yardie »

thanzex wrote: post #26
yardie wrote: post #17

I watched a warehouse go up over the last few months. Everything above the floor was pre-cast concrete shipped in on flatbed trunks. For the size of the warehouse it was fascinating to watch just how fast it got built. The big time sink wasn't even the warehouse superstructure. Majority of the project time was leveling, compacting, and foundation. When I see 3D printing construction compared to precast modules I simp…

Maybe one of the few upsides of this tech is the customizability. Sure, you can get a prefab house built in a week or less if you try, but it's going to be constrained by the prefab shape and layout, even with modular blocks there are still design constraints, like with https://www.wikihouse.cc . As seen in other environments, 3D printing lets anyone design and build for their own use case. People are not all about p…

> 3D printing lets anyone design and build for their own use case.

That may be the case but fundamentally buildings are built to a code, which uses a design pattern (GoF book is literally inspired by architecture), so is repeatable. Customers will ask for bespoke features but none of that scales or even requires 3D printing. And the inventors, so far, are trying to woo investors by suggesting this tech is cheaper than traditional construction and/or scalable. And it so far it hasn't addressed any of that.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#46

Post by throwaway173738 »

tombert wrote: post #9

Maybe it's just the fact that I don't know anything about material science, but I am not sure I'd feel safe in a wood+resin house; this just seems like it's going to end up as extruded particleboard, which I wouldn't even consider building a house out of it. Honestly, maybe they're getting better, but when I researched 3D printed houses about a year ago I was a little disappointed to see how little the 3d printing ac…

I’m very concerned about how this stuff reacts with water. Based on the description it sounds like it’s essentially bakelite and it will naturally degrade into the environment with water and uv exposure.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#47

Post by dghlsakjg »

Swizec wrote: post #38
dghlsakjg wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel the same way. Especially with a promo piece like this so short on details. If you’ve watched a house, or any structure, go up, you know that building the basic structure happens remarkably quickly. This seems to replace framing, roofing and siding. Maybe drywall too? But you still have all of the expensive/slow stuff like plumbing, electrical and finish carpentry that still has to be done.

> But you still have all of the expensive/slow stuff like plumbing, electrical and finish carpentry that still has to be done. I did some research on modular construction recently to use in a talk about modular software design. This tech is getting really cool! You can nowadays get hotel modules that are full pre-built suites. Comes with all the plumbing, electricals, even furniture. Bed and everything already bolted…

They’ve put up two apartment buildings near me that are modular.

It was actually super impressive. Once the site was prepped it went together in the space of a few weeks.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#48

Post by LeafItAlone »

A lot of people are commenting about how this isn’t better than pre-fab or other existing methods. And it is not, for the purposes of constructing same-style buildings.

But I don’t use my 3D printer for things I can order off Amazon or that I need 1,000 replicas off that I can get injection molded. I use it for unique designs and prototyping or one-offs. I think that is where “3D printed” homes will find their niche too.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#49

Post by klyrs »

gambiting wrote: post #42
tempoponet wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you figure? We're talking about the structure of a home, not a modular component of one. A 3d printed car frame would be impractical to replace, let alone the side of a house.

Sure, but if I make a hole in the side of my house I don't need to replace the entire wall - I can patch it up. I'm sure the same is true here?

No, that's exactly my point. The walls are all printed together as a single monolithic building. I can do a repair in my house to the point that you can't tell it was ever broken. I'm not confident you can do the same here.

Re: The world's largest 3D printer is building cozy homes from wood

#50

Post by Turing_Machine »

yardie wrote: post #17

I watched a warehouse go up over the last few months. Everything above the floor was pre-cast concrete shipped in on flatbed trunks. For the size of the warehouse it was fascinating to watch just how fast it got built. The big time sink wasn't even the warehouse superstructure. Majority of the project time was leveling, compacting, and foundation. When I see 3D printing construction compared to precast modules I simp…

What if you want a building that isn't a boring, standardized rectangular box?
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