Printed Homes

So what do some of you more experienced printers/designer think about the possibility of a 3d printed, full scale, livable home... obviously just the bones. Finishing done last.......................... think massive printer. Come one someone tell me why we cant do this in 10-20 years...

looking to discuss possibility not argue of course

Here you go:

http://phys.org/news190873132.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ultratravel/the-next-big-t hing/10110195/The-worlds-first-3D-printed-house.html

http://bigthink.com/endless-innovation/why-3d-printed-houses -matter

http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/21/3d-printing-architecture-pr int-shift/

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/04/architecture- and-3d-printing

It's a definite possibility in the future, but at a minimum of $1.40/cm3 (WSF) it'd be cheaper to build with stacked bundles of dollar bills! And just think of the UPS charges...

Then there's the real issue of environmental friendliness - a house shipped from the European office of SW will come a longer way than one built from local materials here in the UK. Unless of course the printer was based on a truck, and driven to the worksite on Day One so all the printed parts could be simply carried fresh from the printer to their intended locations without massively costly shipping. (Carriage is always the biggest hidden cost in construction - it's part of the base price of every material.)

Of course, we'd need new materials that aren't porous!

Two words: Concrete pump
You would "only" need to find a formulation that solidifies quickly enough to not require formwork.


This might actually not be as much of an issue as you think - porosity is great for thermal and acoustic insulation,
you would just need to apply a watertight finish of some sort (even concrete is porous and far from watertight)

There was a good TED talk on this subject. In this video they show a machine "printing" a concrete wall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=J dbJP8Gxqog

First thing I would do is build a Planet of the Apes gazebo or storage shed in the back yard.

It's already here people.
6 x 6 meter limit.
http://d-shape.com/

JACANT: This is current technology I am looking towards 20 years into the future. Houses printed section by section. Shipped on all electric semi trucks. This is our future we can make this happen.

mkroeker: I like the way are thinking. It would have to be around the viscosity of concrete, maybe thicker would be my guess. Maybe a laser could solidify the mold?

The inside frame work would be relatively the same... hollow inside with I beam like vertical support. The inside would then be pumped with a liquid foam insulator that would make it water tight and highly energy efficient.

barkingdigger: Together we can do anything. Someone once said you can't make a flying craft, and we now have an orbiting space station.


To make something like this happen obviously a lot of things would have to take place

especially with the price of the material.

but we could definitely engineer a giant 3d printer. scale up the size and tweak for support and usability.


What do you guys think?


(I will look at some links, but I am here to discuss in real time thoughts and feelings about this concept)


Thanks,
Dan