The industry as a whole still has some kinks to work out.
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That sucks, I had hoped this would work better as it seemed very efficient/quick. I don’t think this is damning of all pre fab homes though, as they are really common especially in Europe.
I had hoped this would work better as it seemed very efficient/quick
Maybe on Youtube. This was a scam from the start, they were neither faster nor cheaper to build. Bonus: impossible to repair or make changes.
It really feels like the wrong technology for the job.
What 3D printing is great at is having one machine, that can produce a billion different parts.
i.e. with my one printer, I can print hooks, or replacement parts that no longer exist or custom organizer that fit exactly my stuff and situation.
It’s fantastic for printing a massive variety of low volume parts / one offs.
It’s not great at printing those things cheaply, or in modular parts (it can be done but it’s often not because it’s a lot of extra effort for one offs). Which in housing, people want cheap (because it’s the most expensive thing they’ll buy), and they want it to be adaptable and changeable.
If anything I suspect an actual housing revolution could come from pre-fab housing, made of a highly customizable and modular component system, and slick design software, but no one has cracked all the pieces required to implement that yet.
My though is that they failed to understand concrete itself. Concrete works best as a monolith. Literally here, a single rock. As a laminate, it loses strength. From what I was reading, you can do concrete in multiple pours, but people were suggesting to ensure that the rebar stuck out enough between pours and then some other things like bonding adhesive and wetting the layers between pours.
I like the idea of automating the structure. Bricks can be laid as pick and place, and cement can be extruded. This creates a reverse centaur, IMO, where someone is watching the labor and becomes responsible for the quality.
The house is always going to need several different structures added: plumbing, electrical, insulation, HVAC, internal construction and facade, cabinetry, etc, etc, etc.
Being able to shit out as much of that as possible on the spot would save tons, but you still need electrical items whatever. 3D printing may not be the best solution for a house, but it might be a step to something better.
Prefab parts are actually very common here in West and North European homes. Complete prefab houses too, factory made, very well insulated, using heat pumps and underfloor heating, built in plumbing and electrical systems. They do not use bricks but a combination of wood, steel, insulation materials and cladding and are built for a lifespan of around 75-100 years.
Most new subdivisions are assembled on site from prefab components like roof trellises.
Prefab houses are a thing here, too. I was still kicking around the idea of generating a house on site.
People have cracked modular construction. A lot of construction of modern buildings is pretty cookie cutter, especially if the architect is on board to using pre fabricated elements.
They can do pre-fabricated architecture, but they haven’t cracked it.
Current prefabricated construction (especially in the context of homes / housing) is still limited in terms of customization and/or requires a huge amount of manual architecture / engineering work, and the consumer facing customization software is still pretty garbage.
People still often use contractors because they want the level of customization they bring, even when off the shelf options are available.
Don’t get me wrong I have massive faith in prefab construction in terms of infrastructure projects like bridges and elevated guideways etc where you have a design team doing them all up front and sending them off to be made at a factory and assembled on site, but I haven’t seen anything in terms of home construction that seems revolutionary from prefab yet.
Sounded like a cool idea at the time, at least they tried something new!
yeah its good its tried and evaluated. It could be improved to work out or not.
I always thought as a kid that modular construction would eventually be the norm. Kinda like building in video games, or Legos. Basically, premade panels or blocks that automatically interlock and are pre-fitted with the required hookups and utilities etc.
I realized later that as cool as this might be, it would probably be very inefficient cost-wise, where some panels would contain the infrastructure and components for unneeded things.
Interesting thought though.
That’s kinda what I thought about 3d printed walls when I first heard about them. Good idea in theory, but maybe not in practice.
Maybe a combo of the two?
I think you’re not wrong about modular being the ideal result but at the end of the day that’s… Kind of what we already have if you take a look at construction materials.
Not every part of a house needs utilities everywhere. Water, electrical, gas, HVAC, they all need to be specific about where they are and how they go there.
The parts that can be modular already kind of are. You buy kits for everything, modular toilet, modular flush valve in the toilet, modular sink, modular door, standard modular size, modular knob on the modular door because the client wants X door and Y knob, and Z marble top to their C color sink, modular top that fits modular sinks that fits modular handles.
Have you ever replaced a knob? You just go and buy a knob and it magically fits. Replace an HVAC vent? One of two standard sizes usually.
Modular shower with modular hookups to modular water. Everything to modular common specs.
Practically everything is already kinda plug in and screw together.
The thing is… None of this solves cheap housing we need. At best it makes it way easier to replace common parts that break, but even the cheapest replacements are expensive costs to the home owner. It’s money you didn’t intend on spending, surprise expenses.
And if it’s not, it’s luxury remodels. Which aren’t really at all related to solving the housing crisis. That makes a cheap home more expensive. And you have to understand while it makes a ton of sense to upgrade your property and investment… Almost any sensible homeowner is looking to do that and take a cheap home off the market and replace it with a less cheap or even expensive one.
there is very little capitalistic drive to build cheap homes. There’s a drive to build new luxury homes and upgrade cheap homes to less cheap. Modular exists, and it can help you do both of those things which isn’t creating cheap housing. It’s kind of just fucked imo. You need subsidies for cheap housing.
you tube is full of people shilling $15,000 Chinese prefabs. The cost of housing is land, foundation, utility, sewage, etc. Wood framed houses are not expensive to build.
Bottom line imo. As long as capitalist interests slow the adoption of standardization in the grand scheme of all production, construction, agriculture, infrastructure, etc. then we aren’t going to get there regardless.
In vehicles alone there are so so many proprietary things that each company produces specifically not to fit any other model of their own make, let alone fitting another company model. Yet, they all need almost exactly the same parts. It’s a bit insane when to look at it all from a few steps back.
But it’s not all the fault of the producers of any of these things. Demand drives supply. Culture in general needs to get to a place where a persons self worth is not dictated by what they own, but instead on how well they actually enjoy life. Richness in the form of experience.
Material possession is driving almost all the problems of the world right now. While that remains true, very little change can really happen unfortunately.
The housing problem specifically can be fixed, but no politician is willing to bite the corporate hand that feeds them. Ban home ownership for non-human entities and cap how many an individual can own in a district.
Rich people still get their houses in different places, but these hedgefund llcs and real estate firms buying up all the real estate have to liquidate. Done.
Unless the people demand it though, it isn’t going to happen.
Something something… thermal expansion… something.
