3D-printed homes

[V_R]

Food, water, and shelter are basic human needs, but 1.2 billion people in the world live without adequate housing, according to a report by the World Resources Institute’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. Today at SXSW, an Austin-based startup will unveil its approach to combat that deficiency by using low-cost 3D printing as a potential solution.

ICON has developed a method for printing a single-story 650-square-foot house out of cement in only 12 to 24 hours, a fraction of the time it takes for new construction. If all goes according to plan, a community made up of about 100 homes will be constructed for residents in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with New Story, a nonprofit that is vested in international housing solutions. “We have been building homes for communities in Haiti, El Salvador, and Bolivia,” Alexandria Lafci, co-founder of New Story, tells The Verge.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/12/17101856/3d-printed-housing-icon-shelter-housing-crisis

 

[Becky]

This is a great idea I think I remember reading about something similar a while back that used rubble to create the building materials, so would be useful in areas that had been recently destroyed. It's ingenious the solutions that companies are coming up with nowadays.

 

[Ian]

Damn clever! I remember seeing another construction method where inflatable structures were made, then concrete poured on top/in like a mould (some were dome shaped, others were slightly more complex). I guess if you need to erect shelter really quickly, these things can be hugely helpful.

 

[TriplexDread]

Can we use all the plastic that's getting dumped into the oceans?

 

[nivrip]

With these huge concrete like structures what happens if the nozzle gets blocked when printing?

 

[nivrip]

Bit more on this issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43411581

 

[Ian]

Bit more on this issue.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43411581

Thanks for the updated link @nivrip - I just had a read and was struck by this comment:

More than a billion people in the world go to sleep each night without reliable shelter.

That's a HUGE number . I don't know how they class reliable shelter, but whatever way it is, it's pretty horrifying.

 

[Abarbarian]

This 3D Printed House Took Only 24 Hours To Make

The unusaul design of the house is not due to limitations of 3D printing, but rather the opposite - to demonstrate its flexibility.

"The house can be of any shape, including the familiar square shape, because the additive technology has no restrictions on design of new buildings," Apis Cor says, "except for the laws of physics."

Samsung even provided the TV - with the same radius of curvature as a curved wall in the house.

 

[Becky]

That's a HUGE number . I don't know how they class reliable shelter, but whatever way it is, it's pretty horrifying.

It's awful We're lucky to live in a country where the problem is minimal, but there's still a big problem with homelessness.

I guess 3D printed housing can only be a viable solution where land cost isn't a problem...

 

[nivrip]

And here's the 3D printed car to park outside.

https://www.tctmagazine.com/3d-printing-news/polymaker-xev-mass-producible-3d-printed-electric-car/

 

[Ian]

And here's the 3D printed car to park outside.

https://www.tctmagazine.com/3d-printing-news/polymaker-xev-mass-producible-3d-printed-electric-car/

That's really great way to prototype stuff - I'm a little surprised it hasn't been used more in the past. The machines that a place like that will have access would bash stuff out in no time - unlike my 3D printer that has been printing away for 5 hours and probably only got through 50g of material .