A house 3D printed from raw earth • Hacker News Board

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#91

Post by troyvit » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

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…

Trashing the first iteration of this kind is easy. Seeing where it could be in ten years is more difficult and more rewarding.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#92

Post by etxm » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 4:51 PM UTC

flatline wrote: post #70

mbgerring wrote: post #66

Every one of these obnoxious mud huts I’ve ever seen are single story, on like 10 acres of land, in a car-dependent rural area. More people living like this would worsen every current issue we face with environmental sustainability.

Good luck trying to get permits to build anything the slightest bit unconventional in any populated area. I looked at building a geodesic dome, and was going to end up in the boonies and likely still paying off the inspector to pull permits. You could get it done in town and it would have to be over-built, completely ruining the whole efficiency angle of the dome to begin with, and taking months or years to work thro…

Dammit. I just started looking into building a dome house.

Did you call it off completely?

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#93

Post by bluGill » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 4:52 PM UTC

bruiseralmighty wrote: post #78

flatline wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good luck trying to get permits to build anything the slightest bit unconventional in any populated area. I looked at building a geodesic dome, and was going to end up in the boonies and likely still paying off the inspector to pull permits. You could get it done in town and it would have to be over-built, completely ruining the whole efficiency angle of the dome to begin with, and taking months or years to work thro…

Yeah basically this. Trying to build an eco-structure or even a mostly earthen home in the US you are basically relegated to a sparsely populated counties or taking your chances squatting on Federal land. This was quite eye-opening to me once I had to actually attempt to find some land to build on.

For good reason - most of these things don't have good engineering behind them. Standard stick frame construction has good insulation values (dirt/clay/mud/cement does not), holds up to weather, earthquakes, and has reasonable fire protection (it burns but in known amounts). This is all backed up by a lot of engineering data that doesn't exist for most alternatives, they might be better, but nobody has actually run all the angles to be sure.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#94

Post by vanderZwan » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 4:56 PM UTC

mbgerring wrote: post #66

Every one of these obnoxious mud huts I’ve ever seen are single story, on like 10 acres of land, in a car-dependent rural area. More people living like this would worsen every current issue we face with environmental sustainability.

So you're complaining that these first demonstrations of a novel technology are not comparable to technologies developed over decades or even centuries? There is an expression for this: "the last of the old outperforms the first of the new". Most of us don't seem to have too much trouble applying that concept to programming and hardware related developments, so why is this different?

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#95

Post by bluGill » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 4:57 PM UTC

travisporter wrote: post #41

Domes are ubiquitous throughout sci-fi. Why don't we have a competition to, say print domes or homes autonomously in antarctica or sahara?

Because domes are a terrible shape for humans. You can't hang pictures on the walls - the curve makes weird things happen. Likewise your furniture can't be against the wall it must be out to account for the curve.

Domes look cool, so of course fiction is full of them. They are not impossible to build so a few people have built them. They are not a good shape though, so they won't catch on.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#96

Post by fidesomnes » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 5:00 PM UTC

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…

your lack of imagination defines you.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#97

Post by clairity » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 5:03 PM UTC

mikeg8 wrote: post #76

CyberDildonics wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yea but good luck running interior 2x4 furring walls for MEPs (Mechanical, electrical, plumbing) on curved wall structures like this. Would be an absolute carpentry nightmare.

curved wood features and structures are not uncommon, using materials like bamboo and engineered wood. it’s not easy and requires specialized skills, but it’s not a nightmare. and flexible wood structures tend to be more resilient on a per-mass basis.

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#98

Post by canadianfella » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 5:04 PM UTC

mrfusion wrote: post #25

dagw wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The bulk of a house (and its major cost component) is the structure Using current pre-fab techniques a half dozen builders can raise the core structure of a single family house in a few days. A friend of mine is in the process of building a house and raising the core structure was the fastest and easiest part of the whole process. I don't see this being either cheaper or faster. The bulk of the cost in many cases is…

Well lumbar is expensive too now.

Lumber

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#99

Post by Someone1234 » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 5:05 PM UTC

wmil wrote: post #80

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…

Automating anything opens up new doors. Continuing to develop this tech could make it useful for setting up buildings in hostile environments. Initially deserts and the arctic/antarctic. But eventually using unattended robots to construct structures on the Moon and Mars. I think the relevant Onion article is this classic from 1998: "New $5,000 Multimedia Computer System Downloads Real-Time TV Programs, Displays Them…

> Continuing to develop this tech could make it useful for setting up buildings in hostile environments.

To add to this: If you've ever been to these embedments after the fact, they can leave behind a lot of waste/trash. Namely, concrete (pads, walls, etc). Much of which cannot be easily re-used and breaking it down is expensive/hard.

You use 80% locally sourced materials, if the base just gets left, and starts to breaks down, all you wind up with is mostly original dirt from the area instead of toxic concrete dust.

PS - Although Hesco barrier[0] has also made very positive inroads here, replacing concrete with mostly local dirt, chicken wire, and fabric. But it cannot be used for dwellings, only perimeter wall.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesco_bastion

Re: A house 3D printed from raw earth

#100

Post by magikaram » Tue, Apr 27, 2021, 5:10 PM UTC

mikeg8 wrote: post #76

CyberDildonics wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yea but good luck running interior 2x4 furring walls for MEPs (Mechanical, electrical, plumbing) on curved wall structures like this. Would be an absolute carpentry nightmare.

It would also be a nightmare on a curved brick wall, or curved cement structure. The point of the shown technology was the experiment and the potential of it, not the specifics of this single architectural design.