The Truth About 3D Printed Homes

The Truth About 3D Printed Homes. The first 500 people who click on the link will get 25% OFF a Fabulous subscription! thefab.co/undecided. Faster, cheaper, greener. 3D printing may reshape the world canvas for good. Like many inventions, 3D printed homes been hyped up over the last few years. Like the Icon 3D printed homes in Austin, Texas. But what if I told you that Italian architects designed the world’s first 3D printed house out of dirt…yep, dirt. Clearly, the hype hasn’t bitten the dust yet. Let’s take a closer look at what 3D printing means for the future of building sustainable homes and if 3d printed homes are all they're cracked up to be.
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[@UndecidedMF]

What do you think of 3D printing in construction like this? The first 500 people who click on the link will get 25% OFF a Fabulous subscription! thefab.co/undecided. If you liked this, check out; Do We Really Need Electric Cars? kzbin.info/www/bejne/hnu3Y6uYgLJ7arc

[@wfemp_4730]

Cool as hell, but IMO "pie in the sky" for the forseeable future.

[@thesilentone4024]

I think we should use waste rock from mines to build homes. Why well reduce demand and it helps reduce deforestation so they can just simply dump it. Why not use it thoughts.

[@justicematters5447]

Love the video but we would need a lot of clay? Really is that not one of the most abundant resources we have. That statement is pretty stupid.

[@wfemp_4730]

@@thesilentone4024 Transportation costs of a (I'm assuming) relatively dense material? I do like the idea of using waste material.

[@thesilentone4024]

@@wfemp_4730 it doesn't need to be thick heavy pieces. It can be thin long pieces ment for the outside wall to reduce weathering and keep home warm cool and reduce demand for other materials.

[@job1199]

One thing not mentioned...bugs. I lived in a mudbrick house in Australia for 16 years, and borer bugs were a huge, huge problem. Had to seal every milimetre of the bricks with a thick layer of plastic paint, or the whole thing would have been a big nest for varieties of bees and wasps. The mudbrick had some cement in it, so was harder than just dried clay, but the bugs loved it.

[@JPEight]

Why mudbrick? Was it an old house? All the results on image search look super modern. Were there any advantages?

[@job1199]

@@JPEight It was built about 1990, by a structural engineer. Mudbrick because it was supposed to be nice and cool in the hot Aus weather, and took advantage of the pervasive clay soil in Qld. It was also a very nice looking building.

[@CaedenV]

@@JPEight mudbrick has some amazing thermal properties for the wall thickness, and it can be smoothed and painted much like drywall, or hang a facade like brick construction to make it look "normal"... And the material is super durable and strong with little to no seasonal flexing. In a lot of ways it is nearly ideal. But bugs... Yeah... That's a problem to contend with in a lot of areas.

[@____________________________.x]

Use lime based paint, bugs don't like it

[@kazzTrismus]

people have forgotten that the hardwood flooring adoption was the largest increase in lifespan of humanity next to hand washing. dirt based homes will be havens for biological bacterial and environmental health problems. going back to mud huts is just a fantasy for dirty tree hugger hippies who want humanity to go back to caveman days and dying at the ripe old age of 30. their fantasy is our post apocalyptic distopia and will be theirs too.

[@nicholaidajuan865]

From a civil engineers perspective, making the clay from what is found at the site will add a massive variability to the strength and longevity of the structure. There's a reason that other house printers mix soil with cement and not just water

[@carlwest859]

Definitely the mix would have to meet certain strength and durability requirements. A weather proof exterior finish should be part of the design and a sanitary interior coating adds to the cost. Most of all why can't the walls be troweled smooth to represent a more typical structure rather than bee hives or mud dauber nests? Finally is the R value suitable for green tech mandates?

[@ancienttechnology7337]

Yeah, and certainly why people have made heated clay bricks for so long. As a building material they at least have less variables than a big clay cob wall.

[@JohnnyJiuJitsu]

I thought it said it also adds “rice waste?” Maybe the gluten and fibers add that missing component…

[@ancienttechnology7337]

@@JohnnyJiuJitsu rice waste is also called rice hulls. This mixed with clay make a basic Cobb mixture. The fiber helps to provide the tensile strength that the clay lacks. Basically the agrarian version of steel reinforced concrete.

[@yourgooglemeister6745]

Shhhhh you just made a virtue signaling soyboy cry 😢

[@boohoo788]

I used renewable biological housing for my home, I cut a tree down and layered it with other logs, very unique approach

[@ChaoticMartian]

You made a log hut.

[@topsuperseven7910]

They don't believe trees grow or that new trees appear. This is how the Amazon jungle has obviously disappeared off the face of the earth.

[@uniktbrukernavn]

You could be onto something. If built correctly it could stand for a very long time and be easily repaired. You should give it a cool, catchy name, like Log-Tech or TechLog. You see I added the word "tech" to make it seem more technological. Add "disruptive" to make it fintech compliant.

[@topsuperseven7910]

@@uniktbrukernavn He's got the main marketing idea right tho - just invoke the magic word 'Sustainability'. It evokes 'replacement Christianity' now and if you can say the cute term 'Renewables' (remember how moms loves 'lunchables') then get the couple sold on it. Sustainable. Say 'sustainability' and of course 'Green' whenever. Hey guys, what about 'True Green(tm)' or maybe 'this is Ultra Green' technology? 1st Generation Green Products?

[@ArariaKAgelessTraveller]

@@topsuperseven7910 did you go to marketing course in college?

[@Jason-33W]

When I was a soldier in Iraq, there were Iraqi's living in clay-type houses and you know what, DUST was a HUGE issue. I bet it would be horrible in there.

[@kerra3699]

It would be possible to seal the walls by painting a clear coat sealant on the inside and maybe even outside.

[@robgrey6183]

@@kerra3699 LOL, you're so wrong.

[@thefourthdymensionmusic]

moisture is my main sinus problem.

[@goncalodias6402]

Does the dust come from the walls or just from the outside. Since iraq is in a sand desert region.?

[@nothanksnoname7567]

@@kerra3699 Perhaps a lot of linseed oil will help on the external.

[@privatemale27]

I personally like the brick option more. Molded interlocking hempcrete or compressed earth blocks. Easy to mix with traditional construction. Easy to assemble. Good insulation and fire resistance. Some options can be manufactured onsite.

[@melissamybubbles6139]

Yeah. Hempcrete also doesn't look so cold and hard. Are they limited to certain climate zones? Hempcrete and earth blocks are probably easier to incorporate into a range of styles, since plaster walls have a long history. For concrete walls to work, they're left with brutalist, contemporary, or at their most creative, possibly a look resembling castles.

[@totherarf]

@@melissamybubbles6139 I believe Hemp for Hempcrete is growable in most American latitudes. The main problem with it is soil fertility erosion. Great for the first couple of years but diminishing thereafter .... and not easy to get farmers to rotate crops rather than take ll the $ now!

[@oregonNYC]

@@melissamybubbles6139 hempcrete is non-load bearing, it needs to be supported by concrete, wood, or steel. It’s a substitute for insulation and paneling rather than structural. It was misrepresented on this very channel as an alternative to concrete blocks.

[@jonathanravenhilllloyd2070]

I'm hoping to build my house from CEBs

[@macmcleod1188]

@@oregonNYC the version presentedon this channel was an alternative to concrete bricks. Because it has an internal structure that acts much like a Lego block.

[@PenDragonsPig]

I used to live in a cobb house- the walls were about 18 inches thick and made with, basically, mud, poop, straw, and animal hair, then white washed. These ingredients were the preferred materials for a long time. When it was built it had a thatched roof, later this was changed to (relatively) locally quarried slate. It was a shepherds cottage, another unit adjoined it at a slightly lower level on the "street", and a wool barn adjoined at a slightly higher level. They were more than 400 years old. A mud building in a damp climate still going after more than 400 years.

[@thedingo8833]

How long did you live there?? Did you note ant drawbacks? What country/ climate ?? ( if you don’t mind the third degree🙃

[@nox5555]

@@thedingo8833 they are all over europe, from spain to latvia. all those half timbered houses you see use mud and wood and some are 1000 years old.

[@thedingo8833]

Oh my thanks for the insight. Can you tell me if while living in one you noticed any drawbacks??? And as far as maintenance was concerned?. I heard to rethatch a roof was astronomical. Again. Thank you for the info.

[@nox5555]

@@thedingo8833 well they are pretty much all centuries old and have all the problems that come from that. but they have a very nice climate inside. Repairs are pretty expensive but they are more restauration than simple repair. they have some problems when build in swamps, but pretty much all structures have. thats why you find halftimberhouses inland and burned clay brick houses at the coast in most of central europe.

[@thedingo8833]

@@nox5555 wonder if I could build one in Oregon. My goal is to retire in brookings. IDE love to have me own little cottage there. I have been looking for alternative building options.

[@FullCircleTravis]

I'm a handyman. I'm also a 3d printer enthusiast. I think the biggest problem with homes is design and placement. We should be designing homes to be sustainable, collect rain, generate power, and absorb heat during the day to reduce fuel usage. These people are trying to solve a problem that didn't need to be fixed.

[@intuitivetyson]

Well said! I'm sure you're already aware of them, but check out earth ships if you haven't already!

[@joshuacoldwater]

This video is deceptive, almost all 3D printed homes are made using concrete.

[@BloodHawk31]

Studying civil engineering, be gentle: We did soil tests on different soils and there is a reason we don't use clay, it expands and retracts too much, it's an unstable aggregate, so I can't see that this would work without something added to it, we've seen clay houses in dessert areas but built with poles and straw to help stabilize it. Wet areas will be a nightmare for the owner. Size in my mind would be limited, people would say no, there are skyscraper of clay, just keep in mind, I live in cape town and not a dessert, we are renowned for wet winters, so I just don't see a clay 5 bedroom two storey that will be safe and cost effective in my area. But I am open to ideas, I guess as a student this is our job, to research and bring forth ideas, they are drilling environmental studies on us and trying to find alternatives to cement.

[@jamoecw]

clay is a great building material, but in wet areas it doesn't stay dry, and thus it tends to collapse. this material has been used for a long time and people moved away from it for a reason. it is still used because it has some great advantages in dry climates, while still being cheap. most modern versions used for garnering buzz use additives to compensate, or are used for temporary structures that people don't follow up on for longevity (they hide its flaws). just like with other green technologies there is far more buzz than is warranted, but not completely worthless.

[@BloodHawk31]

@@jamoecw can agree with all of that, people talking about container units and plastic roads, they all can work, but there are a lot more behind it that people do not see.

[@goncalodias6402]

To build with earth this 3d printing method is not good at all. People have being doing it for ages. You need to pour the dirt (rich in clay) mixed with straw and then compress it. That is done in layers and takes much more than 24 hours. Then in most places they are white washed with lime wich protects the walls and kills any bugs. These houses last for centuries. Its also important that the walls are usually 40 to 60 centimeters in thickness

[@EleneDOM]

@@goncalodias6402 Yes, here in New Mexico we have adobe houses that have been around for centuries, and the dirt is indeed mixed with straw, and the walls are very thick.

[@alexK661]

I used to live in a clay house. it had 2 types of wall: clay and straw brick walls that, as you said started eroding away and something akin to foundation-like walls. the walls were built into wood planks wolds from clay and wine vines used as an armature. the clay would then be compressed using hammer-like tools. after about a century, when we renovated, we had to sculpt the walls to get something remotely string; metal sparks would come out of the axes and the blade would dull a couple of times a day. clay can be a very good material, used in the right way. not to mention the fantastic thermal insulation it can give

[@trevinbeattie4888]

My initial thought on dirt walls is that it seems good for insulation and fire resistance, but might be bad for water and/or earthquake resistance. I hadn’t even considered the potential insect problem that other posters have mentioned. I think you would still need a solid concrete foundation and some kind of water-proof lining inside and outside the walls.

[@SoMuchFacepalm]

And drainage. I live in the Aus. desert and a few months ago we had a week of constant rain. Everything built to code was fine, other things are still wet. Mud huts aren't going to do to well in something like that.

[@nomms]

There's a pretty large community about building with local onsite materals. They've develiped techniques to address most of this. Dirt/Adobe/Cob walls are thermally massive, they are not insilative. This makes them fine in host places, and places with mild windters, but it's unsuitable for for places where it gets proper cold. Stawbale and balecob houses tend to go up very quick, are very cheap, and don't require much skill. They also tend to have insulation in the r40-r50 range. They have good insulation and thermal mass, allowing passive solar to heat for most of the winter. There are methods for dealing with drainage and frost heave, although I'm forgetting the style of foundation. It's all low tech stuff though, so it doesnt get coverage. These houses last, are cheap, and can be built by anyone with who is able bodied with and afternoons instruction. Putting up a vapor barrier is iffy. It's generally better to let your walls breath. If there's a large water spill, and there will be one, the water has no where to go. It'll end up inside the walls stuck against insulation and you'll get mold. The addage "build tight ventilate right" isn't as common anymore as this style of building has caused rampent mold issues in newer construction.

[@saidinesh5]

Indeed. Kind of surprised the video didn't make much of a comparison to mud huts in a video about using dirt for housing. I'm actually curious now how much work is it to bring and assemble the whole machinery vs. Just constructing a mud hut with modern tools...

[@SoMuchFacepalm]

@@saidinesh5 If it's basically a trailer that you just park and power up it'll be fine, but if there's enough assembly required, you'd be better off just making a normal wattle and daub or similar.

[@Muckylittleme]

That is a prescient comment give they resemble termite dwellings. Still, I'm sure Gates, Bezos, Soros and all the other trillionaire cop26 eco-fascists will be giving up their multi million dollar complexes around the world and moving into theirs very soon.

[@kalisthenes6650]

So glad to finally see a balanced presentation on 3d printed housing. As an architect who has been fascinated by additive manufacturing for decades now, all of the misinformation around this topic is a concern.

[@maudepotvin8660]

Do you think we will ever get to a printed high rise ?

[@natenesler5028]

@@maudepotvin8660 Germany is already doing multi-level 3D printing and their next certification is for high rise. So yeah.

[@maudepotvin8660]

@@natenesler5028 That will be something to see ! My FDM printers feel so small now ... lol !

[@jonathananderberg2607]

@@maudepotvin8660 we are actively working on it.

[@raeishimura]

As a fellow architect, I agree with you on that point. Getting reliable information is concerningly difficult, and it's good to see a balanced presentation on it

[@kyleolson8977]

I know someone who was working on a 3D printed house project in the US and the issue was that they needed many pre-fab or custom parts. In fact, it was likely more practical to use all pre-fab parts and ship them in, but the project was funded because it was 3D printing so they kept the printing.

[@NickVenture1]

The small round shaped huts looked nice. Probably it will be advantageous to use mobile grinder units which can create an efficient mixture best suiting for the particular geographical area. Probably there should be found an ingredient which for sure will stabilize the mortar against erosion by rainfall. This material may not be found locally and will need to be imported.

[@eastanglianlife5461]

The best thing to do with a mud house to make it rain proof is to whitewash it

[@jayshah7497]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/an6ve6ZngLeUZrs

[@burtonschrader2]

As a building contractor I experimented with different options for house construction. You are right. Exterior walls form a very small part of the total cost. Complying with local building regulations that normally include appearance as well as proving stability of the structure must be considered.

[@DrTheRich]

In a lot of countries, especially in the west, being poor is basically illegal, as you're not allowed to build a cheap house. Regulations make it that there is a minimum amount of money you need to spend on your house, or via rent if some company build your appartement.

[@malcolmnicholls2893]

Quite so. In the UK House building is sustained by the finance industry,. In my case, it took two of us 25 yrs, and many times the original cost to pay off. Brick is regarded as often cheaper than timber. Brick can last well over 100 yrs and that pacifies the mortgage companies.

[@DavidStruveDesigns]

Another problem with building regulations - other than making every project more expensive - is how slow they are to update and bring themselves up to modern times. This makes doing anything different or experimenting in any way headache-inducingly difficult at the best of times and completely impossible at the worst. This issue just compounds the more "different" and "experimental" a potential property becomes. Which is why most modern homes are boring carbon-copies of each other with zero individuality and nothing to make them stand out - and in the rare cases where they DO have such things, that immediately makes them ridiculously expensive and unobtainable for the average person, let alone if you're on the poorer end of the scale.

[@laurie7689]

@@DavidStruveDesigns I agree. If we want to change/update our homes in any way, we are obligated to adhere to stricter building regulations using more costly technologies and materials making the changes/updates out of reach of affordability for most average people. Over time, this causes one or two problems: 1) Either the home is NOT updated and it becomes rundown and the owners lose out on the marketability of the home; OR 2) The home IS updated and becomes out of affordable reach for many people.

[@redhammer92]

​@@DrTheRich Well.....yeah. Just like a car, there's a minimum you need to spend if you want something that runs and is safe. Building houses is expensive and skilled work. Until that changes(Builders work for free i guess?) there will always be a barrier to entry.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

The reason I don’t buy in the “3D printed home” hype is because construction isn’t a huge problem for us. Corporate landlords buying all property, and single family home zoning are the problems really hurting us. Edit: also, the reason 3D printing is such a big deal in manufacturing is because it allows you to do designs that are just impossible with other methods like injection molding or extrusion. And it allows you to do this while keeping the costs low because you don’t have to purchase tooling. 3D printed homes aren’t pushing against these same issues so they’re unable to get the same benefits.

[@uhohhotdog]

+

[@satviktasupalli4885]

This, zoning and land use laws are the true factor in housing affordability becoming less common

[@oregonNYC]

This. Especially since the actual hard parts of construction - land procurement, zoning, permitting, grading, utilities etc - are not the ‘building’ part of construction. I’m a pretty mediocre amateur carpenter and can fairly easily build the walls and roof framing of a modest house when all those hard parts are done. As far as building in remote (ie poor, developing countries) its far easier to just drop off modular buildings.

[@oregonNYC]

@@MeanPhyllis land is the issue. Not structures.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

@@MeanPhyllis that’s the point that I tried to address in my edit. You’re looking at it the right way, but I don’t think that’s going to happen for homes. In injection molding a mold can easily cost 100’s of thousands of dollars while the part you make with it may only sell for $1. So you only use that process for products which you know will have large enough production runs in order to ultimately be profitable. 3D printing made a huge splash in that industry because it took away that initial investment and made it much easier to be profitable with small production runs. Housing doesn’t work like this though. It’s quite common that the most expensive part of a home is the land that it sits on. As others have mentioned, the part of building a home that often takes the longest isn’t putting up the walls, but is simply completing the paperwork so that you’re allowed to build. So I think you’re looking at it the right way, but I just don’t think that applies to housing.

[@vantongerent]

This industry / technology is progressing so fast, Matt, maybe you could just make this an ongoing series, and do one video per quarter on 3D printed homes

[@beccas.6983]

I would watch this!!

[@IAMElectric369]

It’s not new. It’s just now being rediscovered.

[@stormRed]

This definitely reeks of trendy marketing and there's bound to be more unforeseen consequences, but I gotta say, the aesthetics are immaculate, it looks so sci-fi and I would absolutely live in it.

[@thefourthdymensionmusic]

ikr? who knew that dirt and water could turn out to look so futuristic. xD

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

Im all for 3d printer stuff,but I don't consider it should be used in such things like actually building a HOUSE.

[@public.public]

It looks like a giant wasp nest.

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

Why put down people who are trying to innovate? Of course there'll be flaws. You have to start somewhere before you can fix the flaws. How is this different from some houses build out of mud or clay by hand, tribal, or ancient houses? Who are people to judge those kind of houses?

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

@@darkzeroprojects4245 How is this different from some houses build out of mud or clay by hand, tribal, or ancient houses? Who are people to judge those kind of houses?

[@anomalousanonymous]

Issues I have seen with the only 3d printed building I have ever seen was the lack of rebar or other means of reinforcing the concrete and the building structure began cracking within the first year.

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

Rebar is the thing that weakens concrete. Just watch some videos about "spalling." The Roman Parthenon, has stood for thousands of years. You don't need rebar. The Romans probably rejected it as idiocy, which it is. Insert a bar inside concrete, made of iron...at the first sign of moisture, it rusts, and EXPLODES the concrete away from itself. The sooner we ban that super-collapsible, extremely weak construction method - the better.

[@richardprofit6363]

@@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking as shown by the horrible building collapse recently in Miami...which I hope won't happen again but probably will...

[@NoName-md5zb]

@@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking ?? Or maybe make sure moisture doesnt get to rebar?

[@lach0125]

@@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking its to take the tensile forces. Without rebar concrete doesn't have the ability to withstand tensile forces. Sure, you can design concrete in a way to always be in compression, but this generally leads to inefficient designs. There's a reason it exists. Please don't assume you know more than all the industry experts out there who have dedicated their life to studying this subject

[@anomalousanonymous]

@@andrewlayton6728 It will not feed into the printer without balling up. There is no linear feed in the unit here, only a trough.

[@teacon7]

Also you'd really want to figure out how well clay exterior walls would last under environmental events like "rain" or "mud wasps looking for a new home." Durability under earthquakes also seems relevant. Maybe they should build these at campgrounds in different climate zones and see how it goes after a few years.

[@saliferousstudios]

Ummm. We have adobe houses that have been around centuries. We know exactly how well mud houses work... We've been doing it since before history started being recorded.

[@jsprunger6246]

@@saliferousstudios Mud huts have a wood foundation

[@saliferousstudios]

@@jsprunger6246 and you think the 3d printed ones cant do that?

[@jsprunger6246]

@@saliferousstudios This one doesn't so it doesn't exactly represent most air dried mud huts.

[@aLwE17]

​@@saliferousstudios I'm an architect and like about everything construction related, adobe houses and mud huts work for certain environments only, adobe houses can only survive dry arid environments and require constant maintenance and protection from moisture, if air-dried mud huts, like in the video, were built in my country, The Philippines, it would wash away or literally melt when the annual typhoon seaons with flooding comes. It would be best and practical to be skeptical of new construction method, especially with claims that are too good to be true, because human lives are at stake when the house collapses. Even here in my country, throughout our history, each region and province have developed a completely different native house design and construction materials independently depending on their soil, sub-surface composition, flooding, earthquake-proofing(around fault lines), humidity, altitude, etc.; For example, in flood-prone areas, our ancestors have developed two-storey houses wherein the ground floor is made up of stones to survive floods, while the upper livable spaces are made of wood for ventilation because of our hot and humid climate.

[@Nurr0]

One thing that is rarely touched on with a lot of these projects is that round spaces are really awkward to use. Want to hang a picture? It's awkward. Want to put a wardrobe up against a wall? It's awkward. Most modern furnishings aren't curved or round, that may change if printed houses take off but it's something to consider.

[@nobreighner]

cabinets, beds, windows doors....

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

There are rectangular 3d printed buildings.

[@JxH]

"3D Printed Homes" First rule of 3D Printing hype: Whatever noun follows the phrase "3D Printed" is *ALWAYS* the incorrect word. In this case, 3D Printed *walls* are only one small part of what makes a "home". Walls are not a "home". This rule is essentially never broken. You'll see it EVERYWHERE. The hype stinks, and I'm left wondering what's the reason for this clumsy attempt at deception, and why doesn't everyone notice and call them out on it? Crazy nonsense. The technology is fine. I'm complaining about the above-mentioned dishonest hype.

[@mrshorts2310]

true and underrated comment

[@theYoutubeHandle]

reason is money.

[@hxpelives]

You'd call a house with brick walls a brick house, not list every single material the house is made of. It's just not convenient.

[@goodvybe679]

It just doesn't make sense to say 3d printed walls in the same way you wouldn't list every single PC part to someone when you tell them about your PC (unless they ask)

[@thegodhead]

It’s a new technology. People being enthusiastic about tech is not equal to deception.

[@ThirdFront]

Ok, I used to live in a mud house. You basically need to cover every inch of the exterior from rain. Any water will make the house collapse without any prior indication. Whatever they saved printing this will be lost by water-proofing for sure.

[@marwerno]

I guess this is easy, just have a large roof overhang. You get a free 360degree veranda😁

[@ThirdFront]

@@marwerno That was one of the method, but not a complete and practical solution.. in our place rain even flows parallel to ground due to heavy winds..

[@marwerno]

@@ThirdFront In this case: the major wind is mostly from one side only, the other directions mostly rare events (so it can dry off). In Germany for example, I would avoid having a raw wood facade in north or westerly orientation, it would not easily dry off and rot quickly.

[@chrisblake4198]

Simple fact is, multiple storeys adds too much economy of scale and versatility for current 3d methods to ever top. Even using traditional methods to add another level just means you have to build ground floor one way, then transition the entire site to traditional building for the next. Also would require a massive shift in consumer expectations, selling homes that are essentially un-alterable once they're built. Legally speaking, there's also massive headaches involved in getting the changes or carveouts needed in building codes to allow these.

[@jonathananderberg2607]

You're right about building codes, but you can print in cavities to cast out reinforced pillars. Single story is for amateurs, we can go to 3 with our current printer.

[@mfpears]

All extremely easy to overcome

[@nasonguy]

Yeah, the concentration of people into urban/population centers means dense housing like 5+1 buildings are extremely cost efficient (more profit for the owners....).

[@Number6_]

The workers live in a cheap to build wasps nest that easily crumbles back into the ground as soon as the rich law makers are done with it and you. Even disposal of your body and possessions will be green. As your bodies are converted into food to feed the workers! No wasted space. They, the environmental liberals have been planning this since the early 1970's. The clean shiny paradise is only for them!

[@Dr.Dipshit69]

There's this new invention called the brick... its wonderful cause it lasts a very long time and can be layed with just a human hand, a trowel, and a bit of cement... I think these guys are creating a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

[@AGPMandavel]

agreed, but you also have to have transportation for the bricks and mortar, and a mixer if you're going that route. laborers and time to lay the brick, solid foundation, not to mention all the infrastructure to create the bricks and mortar, and no issues with the framing, foundation, plumbing, electrical, and location. I used to do bricklaying, and believe me when I say that you never, EVER want to lay bricks on Dan Ryan homes. Most of our job was fixing the shit that the DR "builders" fucked up just so we could do our job. If an entire house can be erected by ONE small team in two or three days with the same point of accountability if there's a problem (not having to call the framers, or cement crew, or superintendent, or surveyors, or, or, or...), that is automatically a much more desirable situation. Not to say that the process of 3d printing homes won't have its own particular issues, but it's still a young technology and process.

[@hanro50]

@@AGPMandavel I'm pretty sure my local small town has a small quarry outside it where bricks are made. The transport of those bricks is likely nothing compared to transporting several tons of steel halfway across the world. -I live in South Africa.

[@AGPMandavel]

Indeed, but in the end no 3D printing company will have just one printer that they truck all across the whole world. They will have many in each region of the world so transport is minimal. I used to work in the bricklaying industry, and most of the time at the end of a project, bricklayers throw the remaining bricks away because it’s cheaper to do so than to truck back the remainder. A mature 3d printing industry would not have this. Not that it wouldn’t have its own problems, but the amount of bricks, mortar and wood thrown away after a house is complete is staggering.

[@hashiramasenju6058]

@@hanro50 You only have to transport the printer once and it will most likely stay in that region. The cost of shipping will be evenly divided among all new homes built with the printer. If it takes $10k to ship and 500 homes are printed with it, that's $20 per home. That's very negligible. Of course it will be a little different for custom homes.

[@hanro50]

@@hashiramasenju6058 You only need to transport the materials to build a furnace to fire clay into bricks once and you can use it to build infinite new homes and repair existing ones. Materials that likely don't need to be shipped internationally

[@SallijaBule]

Would be nice to see a list of disadvanteges like what is the lifespan of a home like this, inluding mold, insects, smell, dust, durability against very dry, arid climates. Also about the maintenence and durability. But very interesting video about the very hyped up industry!

[@nezihmertbolgul3605]

SLS: Selective Laser Sintering. You are confusing it with SLA: Stereolithography. SLA requires photo sensitive material. SLS only needs lasers (or electron beam) to generate heat to fuse powders. SLS can fuse many powder types such as; metal,plastic etc.

[@corujariousa]

Once printed houses are build under code in hurricane prone areas (i.e.: South Florida) we can consider it has reached a level of quality we can trust.

[@Jehty21]

Why would you need a house that can withstand hurricanes if you don't live in a hurricane prone area??

[@corujariousa]

@@Jehty21 My thought is that would ensure this new technology and structure will be strong enough. If I were the one trying to create a good proof of concept to market this, that is what I would shoot for. Also, if I were to buy one.

[@wtsane5449]

Everywhere has something: hurricanes, tornados, blizzards, snowstorms, sandstorm, monsoons, drought.

[@corujariousa]

@@wtsane5449 Mostly yes but not many of those events can make your house crumb on top of you or become a projectile. My point is that there is a lot of commercial hype and misinformation about this technology (for profit).

[@Cspacecat]

The biggest problem with housing is the roofing system, primarily, insufficient overhang. Houses rot away if not painted regularly with insufficient overhang. Buildings not hooked together, east to west allow sunlight to heat the houses inside. Dark roofing material also increases air conditioning costs by 1/3rd. Once constructed, a closed cell spray foam on the outside and then painted would solve the weathering issue as well as place the thermal mass on the inside, allowing a constant internal temperature. Fancy housing is expensive. Well-designed housing is "dirt" cheap.

[@nobreighner]

Good points.

[@christopherconkright1317]

Idk how 450,000 is affordable my mom bought her first house 110,000 we saw the same house sold 1m and it’s 50 years old it’s crazy

[@GamerAwesomeness9000]

I came for the new technology, I stay because of the puns.

[@michaelginever732]

Every episode seem to have more puns than the last. 🤣🤣🤣

[@ArthurKiyanovski]

Pundecided (pun intended :))

[@MrSharpdrop]

There are a lot of them to dig through, but he keeps spitting them out!

[@VitaEx]

„Puns are the highest form of literature.“ - Alfred Hitchcock

[@Sturgeonmeister]

One of the issues I see, is the ability of the homeowner to make changes to the structure, such as adding an extension or maybe interior changes. With the current stick frame construction, installing or changing power, comm, water and gas, or easier to do.

[@PerennialWheat]

This.

[@danielmalinen6337]

In Finland, we usually live in houses built of wood, where moisture, mold, rotting fungi and radon are a bigger problem than insects, but insects also love to live in the structures of houses built of wood and, for example, a beehive in the attic or between the walls is no surprise. But for example, desirable indoor insects are usually flies and small spiders. And less desirable are cockroaches, mealworms, ants and silverfish. And it is often difficult to prevent insects from entering the house, for example many insects use open openings in drains or a door or window that is kept open. And no matter how hard you try to keep the insects out, they still come inside.

[@nobreighner]

Well sure, you would try to get inside, too! Did not know about the radon part. It is very wet here also in N Coastal California, which affects building practices likewise.

[@sandybeebe9149]

This is facinating ..thank you for sharing .

[@bobprickett2223]

I built my own passive solar Adobe home in the late 70’s. I don’t understand why Adobe hasn’t become more popular. It was the best house I’ve ever lived in. We rented it for a month from the current owner last year and it was as good as new. I didn’t see any settling cracks or any signs of age.

[@marblelibrarianlibrarian4983]

Unless it is FIRED, adobe will fail in wet environments.

[@bobprickett2223]

@@marblelibrarianlibrarian4983 The adobes I used were “semi stabilized”. I think that with a stem wall high enough to prevent moisture wicking up and overhangs large enough to keep water off the walls that they would outlast a frame wall. It’s just a hunch. I think there should be more research on Adobe building in various climates. They are the ultimate in eco friendly construction material.

[@marzadky4934]

What does Adobe home mean?

[@gregorioeduardo]

@@marzadky4934 Adobe Mud? An adobe building is classified as a structure created by earthen and organic materials. It’s the absolute earliest form of structured shelter building known in all of human history. Adobe is Spanish for mud brick, and its life starts out as exactly that. Mud mixed with other organic matters, and turned into bricks and dried. ps. You can find out almost any information by making an Internet 👀 🔍

[@nobreighner]

That is a good story - thanks for sharing it. Temperate dry climate?

[@CaedenV]

I love the idea of a 3D printed house... But I seriously wonder about the practicality of it. As an example, my home was built in the early 1950s, and it (like many homes in the neighborhood) have housed several different families over the years. In the 1960s someone finished the attic space for a couple more bedrooms. In the 70s someone added a small extension. In the 80s someone added some insulation and upgraded to a modern HVAC system. Through the 90s and early 00s the owners were barely ever home and didn't maintain anything, so we got it for a steal right before the 08 crash. And over the last 15 years we have worked a lot on insulation, replacing old plaster, and some minor structural improvements. Not to mention someone added a phone system with 3 phone Jack's and at least 1 cable outlet in every room (including the bathroom lol). And I added a lot of cat5. Nobody in 1950 could really see a need for any of that. Point is, it is thesiesis ship, ever changing and evolving over the past 70 years. And sure, not everyone is as gung-ho about tearing open a wall and unraveling the mess found inside like I am... But people will make changes to their home over time. A house that is 3d printed may work great as a dream home for the first family moving in. And when the home doesn't suit needs perfectly I am sure most people are less stubborn than I am about making changes to make my house work for me. But inevitably some new thing will force a change... How viable will it be to make changes to these homes? If an accident happens and a hole needs to be patched how hard will it be compared to drywall? And when much more conventional construction comes in near the same price and similar efficiency... Well... Is there a point? And I say this as a huge believer in the idea that we will literally have some traditional construction jobs being replaced by general purpose robots in the next 10 years. Atlas in 2032 will totally be able to put a house together perfectly to code working day and night using current day construction methods. And neat as 3d printing is... It just won't compete with that in 10 years. There is little point to making a specialized robot that can do 1 thing when something like an atlas platform will do everything just as well, just as cheap, and be able to be tasked on any number of projects over its useful life. Pains me to say it... But 3d printed housing needs some truly massive improvement to make itself worthwhile. 3D printing holds a lot more promise in unique to medium scale production of complicated parts. Changing a 3d printer to mass produced goods is fundamentally misunderstanding the tech. Use a 3d printer to make a mold for a wall, and then use the mold to make a million mass produced walls. That is the direction to go in.

[@NathaNeil27]

As the world runs out of lumber over the next 100 years, other housing materials will be needed. Perhaps that's where this tech could become more viable. Then again, bricks are always a thing.

[@BgStalker]

@@NathaNeil27 you know that trees literaly grow every year, right? Lumber is the ultimative renewable material known to humanity for ages.

[@jaqssmith1666]

@@NathaNeil27 GOOD NEWS MY FRIEND!! I have contacts in the Orient that tell me of new developments! They call it "farming" and tell me it will be big very soon.

[@keithnewton8981]

You know what our home are built 9f brick stone and block and it just as easy as dry wall to repair or open up but it last longer than you shed homes in North America

[@NathaNeil27]

@pyropulse Today, only 4 billion hectares are left. The world has lost one-third of its forest - an area twice the size of the United States. Only 10% of this was lost in the first half of this period, until 5,000 years ago.Feb 9, 2021

[@szlatyka]

Interestingly enough the best 3D printed house concept (so far) came from the 60s from the Danish as far as I know and used en masse in former Soviet countries. They would make wall sections (called panels) from reinforced concrete with all tubing for water and electric lines pre-installed. They would transport these panel on-site, weld the connecting rebars together, use a but more contrete fo fill in panel connections and there you go. In Hungary they even went further establishing multiple "house factories" that would manufacture complete bathrooms complete with plumbing and tiles fitted even before transport - they would then transport the complete room into the building site, place it and connect it. Only thing they messed up is the design, most of these panel buildings look horrible (though a lot of them getting new insulation and with it paint jobs, which help a lot).

[@SteveK6470]

Very informative video! My ideal dream home is an Earthship but would love to 3D print my home since I find that technology fascinating. After watching this video, it seems it would be very costly or just not the right way to build. I have also looked at other building methods like earthbag / superadobe, compressed earth blocks, etc...

[@messman10]

3D printing for now will probably be best used for niche things, like foundations. The printers work great with concrete, which is not that great for the environment; but using the printer with a honey comb like structure, and maybe aircrete infill of the chambers, Foundation costs could probably be dropped along with their environmental impact. Surprised no one is looking into using CNC machines to lay bricks and other structural units, like hempcrete blocks, or doing 3d printing with hempcrete onto an existing frame. That would make a logical step, on a similar idea, with just some differences in the mechanics.

[@RickHowell89]

Look up SAM, the bricklaying robot.

[@johnmorris1162]

Fastbrick Robotics has a working prototype in Western Australia. Has build some one and 2 storey houses in Australia and Mexico using large blocks.

[@kenji214245]

There are already several bricklaying robot companies showing of their skills for building houses fast and easy. That can work 24/7 and set up the foundation for laying pipes and lay out powerlines. The sales pitch is that you only need a crew for transport, details and final quality checks. And then the robot or robots can build the base of a full 4 bedroom house in 48-72 hours. Some have claimed 24 but that was only for singe floor plan housing. But they are becoming popular in Scandinavia so. Also there are some companies showing of how to take down houses with minimal risks and high automation with robots doing most of the work and creating less rubble. I think the construction market is one of the future places where worker demand will plummet.

[@ThisWontEndWell]

We have 500-year-old cob houses in the UK, this is basically a complicated cob process so would be interesting to see a cost analysis between the two.

[@jcsjcs2]

I would have appreciated some words on how they prevent the clay to just melt away with the next rainfall. Also, it's one thing to find an area with clay and build a house in the middle of it, compared to finding a place you actually want to live and then trying to locate the closest source of clay.

[@thedingo8833]

Wonderfully informative thank you. Well done 👍🏻

[@ymi_yugy3133]

Thank you so much for finally including density in the discussion about 3d printed homes. So much of the sustainability "innovation" in the construction industry seems to revolve around really unsustainable developments.

[@ancienttechnology7337]

So I love clay, I’ve actually been working with clay as an art media since I was a child. Clay’s strengths are often overlooked in today’s modern world made of plastic but its weaknesses cannot be overstated. In its green form there’s far too many weaknesses for clay to be my go to home building material. Just for starters not all clay is created equal and the ceramic industry spends a lot of time and money testing materials. Locally sourced clay may sound good on its face, but I remind you that clay comes from decomposed granite. The farther you get from that source in the mountains the less pure it becomes. At the valley floor where most humans want to live clay has many metallic impurities making it red, brown even nearly black. These are thing no one should be breathing in daily. Secondly the source granite many clay deposits come from is also a host for radioactive isotopes like thorium radium iridium uranium etc. Again not stuff you want kicked up while sweeping your kitchen.

[@marblelibrarianlibrarian4983]

Yikes! I had been wondering about the chance of native arsenic, lead, and mercury.

[@DocBree13]

Great points!

[@joshlamingo1145]

The cost of walls is similar for a house with bricks. A majority of the material cost came with the roofing and flooring when my parents were building their house.

[@tendy6993]

This is awesome. Thank you man.

[@terrafirma9328]

The printing aside, I'm more interested in the rice paste for the mud mixture. If someone could make a mold and use the clay/rice mix to form their own bricks, blocks, etc. They could put their own sweat equity into the build and save even more.

[@dracorosso7129]

Pretty sure we already been building dirt houses for tens of thousands of years already.

[@leoriottot8666]

Yeah that’s the point, using technology to re-introduce dirt construction in the world housing !

[@leoriottot8666]

On every continent since -8500 !

[@mikelig8365]

Great video, I learned a lot. Thanks!

[@marwanbeaino5377]

Thanks for the eye opener analysis !

[@AFO1]

I can't imagine the insect and rodent infestation you'd have bring food into a home with walls made of compressed dirt. That would be a nightmare keeping them out.

[@theparkourlady894]

What happens to the clay structures in a flash flood? Just wondering as that would be my primary concern with that particular material.

[@kazzTrismus]

snowy and high rain environments will degrade that structure in very short order.....theyre already a serious problem

[@bzuidgeest]

Maybe they'll invent a way to bake your house next. Make it a pottery house. Might even be water tight 😜

[@Aikano9]

Maybe light a massive bonfire inside and have it going full blast for a week straight to make it weather resistant?

[@hazonku]

@@bzuidgeest Ya know, that's not a bad idea actually. Regular FDM printers work by heating the plastic & shoving it through the hot end via an extruder. I bet you could totally just flip that concept on its side & have a hot end that trails behind a clay extruder baking the layer as its laid. The question then is can you do that and maintain structural integrity or will it just be a stack of loosely fit clay rings?

[@bzuidgeest]

@@hazonku or you could do it the way any factory "robot" does it and form the clay and shove it all in an oven thousands of bricks a time. Some things are far more efficient without a print head.

[@uufol]

About 15 yers ago I observed houses being built for $5,000 in Haiti. Concrete cinder blocks were made locally, assembled on a concrete slab with wood shutter doors and windows, 4 rooms and tin roof over optimized 2x4 framing. No electrical or plumbing. Local labor. Quite impressive.

[@smlgd]

Local labor, that's the key. People there are paid shit salaries that's why it's so cheap

[@jpjay1584]

they are paid local wages. and most of them are happy to have a job and provide for their families. even you call that shit salaries, they are still "regular jobs" there @@smlgd

[@jacobmerrill7382]

I recently built a concrete pad to be used as foundation for a 3-d printed building. We poured over 180 cubic yards of concrete JUST for the foundation (which has to be perfectly level otherwise the printer won't work on it). I'm highly skeptical when it comes to 3-d printed homes. Unless huge technological breakthroughs happen and they're able to work around some of the inefficiencies, we won't be getting rid of contract construction labor anytime soon.

[@nobreighner]

The 185 yard pour I just worked on was for a $10-million home that is too big to fit on a 24x36 paper at 1/4 in ch scale. Footings 5' tall. I don't know of any 3DCP anywhere near this size, so I am guessing that is one beefy slab!

[@dewiz9596]

The house I own and have lived in since 1971 was factory-built in two halves 450 miles way, and trucked to be placed on a cast concrete foundation. Due to height limitations for transport, the three-room bungalow has 7-1/2 foot ceilings. . . In my neighbourhood, there are two, three and four room bungalows, split levels, and even a few two-storey homes. To me, one of the issues in construction are the quality of local labour. Everything done in the factory has been trouble free, while work by local contractors after placing the two halves on the foundation, and the foundation itself have been problematic.

[@delboy7039]

Which is great, but as mentioned urban sprawl due to low density, causes more problems than it solves, high density is what is required, going forward...

[@fakiirification]

@@delboy7039 high density leads to mental health decline and social strife. Humanity was not meant to live in cement towers in the sky.

[@bobbyboucher6661]

@@delboy7039 High density is for rats and worms

[@kronk358]

Cant repair it, cant hang pictures on the walls, cant run new electrical through the walls, looks weird, hard to sell. We figured out the solution to the housing crisis a long time ago. We just ended up attaching a stigma of trashy people and trashy neighborhoods to it: manufactured houses.

[@Snooder]

Not really. The problem with manufactured homes is that they often aren't actually cheaper than stick-built once built to the same rigidity and level of quality. Sure, manufactured homes are usually cheaper, but that's because they are also much more flimsy. Thin walls, shallow foundations. Etc.

[@michaelsorensen7567]

We didn't attach any stigma. The sigma grew naturally in experiential fashion. And it doesn't end up solving the problem either lol

[@dgrubelic]

We started building our house 2 months ago. There were many options on what kind of house to build. We went with classic reinforced concrete + bricks approach. 2 years ago in Croatia there was huge earthquake and lots of people lost their homes. Anyone who had reinforced steel concrete house had only minor cracks. I would never allow my kids to sleep in a house that doesn't contain reinforcement steel.

[@nobreighner]

Well said.

[@bienvenidoremollofegiiii6195]

Very usefull and amazing content,❤❤❤

[@sammy13ificationable]

That's Cob, weve been doing that for tens of thousands of years. Hella rad that they managed to do it with machines rather than hard labor. You can also use hay, grass, gravel, or horse manure as a binding agent in the mixture too. It makes a great cement when used to pack and insulate stacked stone. It's an OLD technique

[@UNSCPILOT]

Sometimes some of the best solutions are *OLD*, simple and reliable methods and tech tend to need far simpler supply chains too

[@AtPeacePiece]

Poop as a binding agent? Stop sir.

[@sammy13ificationable]

@@AtPeacePiece it's a thing. Horse manure works best, but I prefer hay... more sanitary

[@kadian3904]

@@sammy13ificationable generally i believe straw, grasses and other fibers were used in main cob construction the manure was usually mixed in for finishing coats as the fibers were much smaller and made a much smoother finish. But nothing a good grinder couldn't simulate these days lol....could you use manure entirely? Absolutely, but I'm just thinking all the leftover straw from harvest would have been a much quicker solution to the bulk of a building going up for a family in those times as opposed to picking the horse fields.

[@velvet3784]

@@UNSCPILOT exactly. Today it seems like everything has to be overly techological. Especially "smart this" and " smart that". Like everything has to have some soft of computer in it, even washing machines.

[@Sic_Ca_Rax]

What does it use to prevent pests? Such as wasps, rats and ants, from making a dwelling in the dirt/ clay walls.

[@nobreighner]

Good question.

[@HALOO_ANTON]

Thank you for an amazing content

[@GMAMEC]

Oh well, I guess we’re back to the drawing board when it come to a suite for my MIL. Thanks for sharing your personal experience and information.

[@markhemsworth2670]

Been waiting for this video. I live in Zambia (Southern Africa) and local labor is cheap, and local building methods are also cheap. Some compressed formed blocks are much more practical than a "robot" ... at least in our context.

[@bzuidgeest]

We already have that, we call them bricks. And robots can produce and stack them

[@markhemsworth2670]

@@bzuidgeest my point though is to get away from robots. A press that creates interlocking blocks like this is more what I see as the most practical given the labor and other conditions in Africa - kzbin.info/www/bejne/l3uTpH-sfbGKpac

[@bobbyboucher6661]

@@bzuidgeest Robots cannot stack bricks faster than a human, but computer programs can design homes better than a human architect

[@bzuidgeest]

@@bobbyboucher6661 maybe not now, but that is only a matter of time. And even if robots are slower in stacking. They don't eat, work 24x7 and so on. No human can.

[@AtomicShrimp]

I think there's an element of 'perfect is the enemy of good/better' here - if people are going to continue living in suburban/rural settings, then the question becomes not 'is this perfect', but merely 'is this better' - is it better to construct a house out of local mud, or out of bricks that have been fired using fossil fuels, bonded together with mortar (containing lime that is again roasted using fossil fuels)? Both houses will need wiring, plumbing and other things to make them habitable, so that's probably a wash, but this does seem like it could have potential for incremental improvement. Although in the UK, where it rains whenever it wants to, I wonder how long a mud house would remain a house at all.

[@willabyuberton818]

3D printing is great for one-off, highly customized, and structurally complex, but small objects. Houses, especially the ones that I've seen 3D printed, are mass-manufactured, identical, and simple but, as far as objects go, fairly large. Why are we trying to 3D print them again?

[@AtomicShrimp]

@@willabyuberton818 an automated method of creating large, seamless walls doesn't seem like a terrible idea.

[@miketheskepticalone6285]

The UK is where we got wattle-and-daub, and cobb from. There are houses there that have not only been standing for LITERAL centuries, they are still in use. There are problems. Problems can ... and will ... be solved.

[@cristibaluta]

UK must be dumb to allow construction of houses that don't fit their style.

[@iancowan3527]

A number of years back now... I worked for a Florida company that took to using NuCor Steel's Roll-formers that took 6inch wide coils of galvanized steel to make either steel studs or roof trusses that were cut, notched, or punched with a CNC controlled head that can reproduce a given floor plan countless times, that's able to be fit and be secured easily within a conex box at night and operated with any steady 220v power source. Small forklift is required to handle and load the coils, but simply hand tools and pneumatic tools handled everything else. During 3-4 day span, we were able to create at full 13k to 17k SQ ft house during a single 8hr shift, then on Friday the wall panels were loaded on one flatbed, and the trusses on other. As long as the foundation was poured correctly, within 6hrs a the full frame set can be anchored on site and tradesmen can start the next day. The normal scraps for making an entire house could fit in a 5gal bucket! Using a fixed floor plan or plans and well trained people, not only was the waste greatly reduced, but with results being constant and 100% repeatable - the time from when the slab was poured to when the keys to the finished house was turned over - it was possible in less then 50 days...

[@dennisfahey2379]

That was an interesting statement about housing density. Disneyworld's original plan for EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow) was a that of prototype city with a quality solution for work and living space side by side in "pods". Has efficiencies for sure. This use of local soil is clever. Harkens back to adobe. It will be interesting to see how they evolve further beyond the traditional geometries. 3D Printing affords more options with shapes and structures. With Artificial Intelligence added who knows what will evolve. I recall seeing a 3D printed vehicle wheel support assembly that looked nothing like the norm. It used less material and had far more strength. This mimicry of nature is brilliant. Nice work!

[@ajnasreddin]

Do they fire harden the "clay" walls? If not, a rainstorm will likely wash the home away.

[@nonyabusiness1126]

Pretty sure people intelligent enough to 3D print a structure thought about rain...buuuuuuuut, it is 2022. Great question!

[@julianshepherd2038]

@@nonyabusiness1126 I think they built it in a desert

[@nonyabusiness1126]

@@julianshepherd2038 A desert that will never get rain?

[@kazzTrismus]

@@nonyabusiness1126 deserts get rain..but not a weeks worth of perpetual wet constantly... but they do get dry again real quickly and draw the moisture out at a fast pace too. which probably isnt good either. clay is good at rejecting water after drying and not being super absorbent in short time frames all that said..the bugs and critters are adapted to that exact environment as well

[@Primalmoon]

Another consideration: how much water does it use? You might have all of the clay or dirt you want, but needing to get enough water to get the clay printable might itself be prohibitive in drier regions.

[@nandu7750]

Its lesser than used to mix concrete. I read somewhere and ill send the link if i find it

[@efreitorhabibulin238]

​@buffalo wt hey now, stop ruining new fads with your solid logic and practicality.

[@cosmicerror2924]

@buffalo wt Trees take a lot of water too...

[@SavageOne420]

If they are trucking in a shipping container for the printer they can probably ship in the needed water or a machine that can extract the water from humidity in the air or waste water sources

[@zarddin9561]

@@SavageOne420 Or you can just create a house from the shipping container.

[@aphinion]

I'm so looking forward to the amazing architecture this new technique makes possible...

[@drxym]

I constantly see articles proclaiming 3d printing will mean the end to housing shortage, that it will mean cheap housing for poor people etc. Anyone who has seen the videos of a 3d printed house should also be able to see the limitations - it produces really ugly houses and it still takes a considerable amount of time and labour to produce even a single story house. And nobody is going to want to living in a house than can wash away so it'll be concrete, mortar or something like it. And besides all that putting up the walls is only about 10% of the time taken to construct a house so it's a complete nonsense herald it as a solving anything. Besides, if speed of construction was the limiting factor then it would be solved with modular houses which can be prefabricated in factories and assembled on site to a far greater level of completion than some glorified coil pot.

[@topsuperseven7910]

There isn't really a housing shortage tho. There are city councils who deliberately hold back permission to build them. that is all there is to it.

[@matthewparker9276]

@@topsuperseven7910 that's part of it, but there is also the developers pushing for more low density housing in unsuitable areas, rather than quality mid density housing in areas nearby existing infrastructure, because that's what's more profitable. And then there is housing policy that favours investment over habitation. There are a number of factions contributing to keeping housing scarce and expensive.

[@skytek7081]

Most 3d-printed home concepts are like the Wasp printers, in that they imagine this vast low-density ultrasuburb setting, where what we need is to bring the density Up in many housing situations. quad-plexes, 6-packs and larger apartment structures need to be in numbers high enough to make things affordable. Also- Stressing that the house can be broken back up into dust when someone is done with it? Since I have never heard of demand for housing really sinking like that it sounds like they are trying to double-dip on the market. Imagine a house that was only good for ten years before you had to pay someone to come mash it up and re-print it? It's crazy.

[@jestagaming8123]

But this comes with many added problems, like much higher spread rates of sickness and bugs, (bed bugs, roaches, etc) which in turn cause more health and psychological problems. Too much density is as big of a problem as too little density, just pick your poison. I like the concept of a 3D-printed home, but I want a home that is going to last me, eco friendly is fine as long as it lasts. My foot print is a fragment of the size of the rich people, I do my part in walking or biking where I can and recycling but they lose me in the "you were never here" frame of mind.

[@betsyolsson-mackowski7682]

THIS! Δ👍👆🆙voted 🔼⏫⬆️⤴️🔝

[@garywheeler7039]

As an architect and 3d printing enthusiast, I have to admit, the 3d printing only really prints WALLS. Not really roofs or foundations, windows, second floors. And it does not touch electrical, plumbing, plastering, cabinets, fixtures, doors, and all the miscellaneous stuff that makes a home. No insulation, no vaper proofing, no moisture barriers, overhangs, architectural ornaments, decorations, the things that make a house a home.

[@PaulSzymkowiaks]

As you'll probably know, it's a rapidly improving space. Excavation: kzbin.info/www/bejne/bKDUdn6vqMqoaLc. Wall Insulation that could be clad externally with Adobe or Concrete: kzbin.info/www/bejne/iJjTZaGZmJaqhbM. Internal Wall surface plaster, render, paint: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4iaiJKeZtF1nKc, etc

[@tenchuu007]

No reason it can't print a roof or a second floor. Increase the gantry height and reinforce it and use biodegradable foam blocks to hold up the top as it dries.

[@garywheeler7039]

No reason? You just posted one. You have to support foam blocks under any layer put out by a 3d printer? Almost as bad as some filament printers that require "support" below horizontal elements. Much of the material is wasted and has to be thrown away.

[@tenchuu007]

@@garywheeler7039 you can make that support material out of any number of reusable or compostable materials. Supports don't have to be made of the same materials, in many high end 3d printers a dissolvable layer of support material goes down first. There is no reason that can't be done even more efficiently with on-site workers placing blocks of mushroom foam or the like.

[@garywheeler7039]

@@tenchuu007 : Or temporary scaffolding phased correctly.

[@greghart6310]

"Just the walls" - in a day - that's HUGE! That is a massive savings, not just in cost but more importantly time which is very relevant for low cost housing projects where volume of production is paramount.

[@bjmgraphics617]

I think modular tiny house is the most bang for the buck with high energy efficiency. A modular home can be put up in hours and that also means move-in ready.These kinds of homes can be customized to fit the buyer's needs or desires and it's future proof for expandability and styles can be changed whereas a traditional built home is stuck on one style. These homes come in a prebuilt kits that get assembled quickly on the site.

[@glenw3814]

I was waiting for you to address the issue of suitable climates for the TECLA houses. It seems to me they will only work well with a waterproof exterior coating, or in very dry climates.

[@sebastiangeorge7714]

where i live that structure will not live long enough to Receive the interior.

[@FelixTheAnimator]

There isn't really a housing shortage ya'know. There's six empty houses in the USA for every homeless person. The problem is housing hoarders.

[@JPEight]

That and easy credit which makes it a massive bidding war where only bankers and rich elite win. If banks gave out less credit then people would have less money to spend and the price would stay low.

[@kazzTrismus]

the empty houses fallacy has beenb debunked as the greedy commie propaganda it is. many of those homes are peoples cottages that they worked hard their wholes lives saving up for and will only own for a medium/short time until its their retirement home. additionally included are condemned / abandoned buildings that just havent been torn down but you wouldnt put an animal in. besides which the argument is based on the idea that the only thing that makes a person homeless is the lack of a dwelling not the fact theyd rather spend rent money on drugs or alcohol or the mental health crisis that does exist. it is greed in a glossy wrapping because we both know these "corporations" causing the housing crisis are in league with the government using it as a ploy of power against all of us not in the club

[@FelixTheAnimator]

@@kazzTrismus I don't know where you are, but it's definitely true in my city in Texas. 90% of the single family homes on the north side of town (aka the bad side) are owned by a single person who happens to be on the city council.

[@kazzTrismus]

@@FelixTheAnimator you cant say that isnt a government endorsed monopoly... thats sketchy as F and obviously the exception to the rule.....even if its got all kinds of "guy should go to jail" written all over it.

[@youtube-handle-are-a-joke]

Ever tried to put furnitures in a round house? If on top of that it tapers toward the top... Be ready for some custom furniture if you don't want to loose floor space or only low and narrow furniture.

[@runawaypinecone7304]

This has actually existed for a while, saw a video of it on facebook like 6 or 7 years ago. Is an amazing concept

[@drillerdev4624]

It'd be interesting to see a comparison in time / effort / cost between 3d printing walls and good old brick laying.

[@kasimirb5155]

... not to speak of pre-cast concrete construction!

[@hamjudo]

If the soil is suitable, bricks can be made on site. The house can then be assembled by people where jobs are needed, or _pick and place_ machines where labor is in short supply. Regardless of the construction method, designing in accessible utility conduits makes a home much more adaptable as plumbing, power, heating and cooling technology changes over time.

[@JPEight]

Yes. “Concrete is bad, clay is good” we have that already, it’s called bricks.

[@drillerdev4624]

@@hamjudo you need to bake the bricks, unless you're thinking of adobe huts, and that's not easy to do on site, specially at a certain scale.

[@Eidolon1andOnly]

Or sandbag construction with a plastered finish.

[@UnexpectedBooks]

It seems best suited for printing storage buildings. Then, water, sewage, electrical can be ignored or greatly simplified.

[@nobreighner]

Yeah those are issues with the way they print now.

[@rjakiel73]

3D printed homes are a novelty. Here in Georgetown, TX they just completed 1 of 40 3D printed homes and they start at $475k for 1500 sq ft. That is more expensive than a conventional stick built home and far more expensive than dropping a custom prefab on a slab.

[@dimitardobrev3296]

Its really a simple formula for low-mid density houses (I've personally seen 4 storey CSEB apartments in Tamil Nadu (Auroville) India, immaculate!). 1) Rammed earth foundations (deeper than wider!) using 5% cement by volume, compacted to achieve desired MPA OR stone foundations OR if you have the resources, reinforced concrete foundations (strip or pad depending). 2) Damp proof course (many options). 3) Frame support structure from timber or fired masonry (piers at X centres). (If using CSEB, then that is structural, no need for framing. Also no need for rebar in walls, only in ring beams). 4) Clay walls (3d printed?? or sun dried adobe, depends where you live). 5) Properly designed ring beam - don't skimp! 6) Roof with generous (+1m) eaves overhangs (protects clay walls from rain). 7) Bonus add on when you have the time/money: wrap around veranda which acts as an apron / extended living area, which also is another layer of protection (for the clay walls) against moisture. 8) Finishes: Lime plaster and paint on the clay will take care of most issues relating to bugs/vermin. You will still get some cracking from settlement etc. but you can touch up after a year or so. Point is: you can build this house yourself with stones, timber and soil from the landscape you live on, using hand tools if you really have to. Obviously there are limits to scale. I know i haven't mentioned the floor - that is a long conversation, there are so many ways of doing it. For high rises 4 storeys and above, my money is not so much on earth tech, but rather Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) technology. It ticks all the boxes for me: Co2 sequestration, strength, reproduction, portability, fire resistance (surprised? go read!), sustainability and customization are all there in CLT design. It also uses a fraction of the steel of "traditional" steel and glass high-rises. Thanks for exposing these WASP fad hipsters Matt. Their vision is a bit myopic. Regards from South Africa.

[@christopherhovord3516]

I would be interested to know how easy it would be to for ants and other insects to make home inside your home 🤔 wouldn't want to wake up in a house made from mostly dirt and find that a ant nest has taken up all the walls... I imagine that would be difficult to get rid of

[@Kausan1]

Yep

[@Number6_]

They don't intend to live in these things themselves. These places are for the workers! It and you are biodegradable. No messy cleanup costs for them!

[@kenji214245]

They will likely not mention that the walls are also filled with some other stuff that either scares of insects or instantly kills them. XD

[@orionishi6737]

Just as easy as it is for them to do so in the houses we have now. Just because they don't have a seal or facade on these Proof of Concept showings doesn't mean they never will be.

[@Kevin_Street]

Thanks for the video. It's really interesting to go back and take a second look at something you've featured before. I'm not sure that 3-D printing will be a good solution to the problem of building homes for people who are homeless or who currently live in poor housing conditions. It's an expensive new technology that needs to be imported, and will require specially trained workers to operate. This is an example of using technology to solve what's really a logistics and organization problem. These areas have plenty of available labor. What's needed is a way to source and deliver materials cheaply (From within the local area, ideally. The TECLA people got that part right.), then organize the available labor and get things built. Money spent on acquiring local materials and paying local workers will produce a better result than importing new technology from abroad.

[@J.Cameron.Stuart.Adams.]

Great video! We don't need 3d printing. We have concrete blocks, standard fired bricks, and sun dried clay bricks. Making ICFs and SIPs available as kits from a catalog of homes to self builders is a better means of reducing the costs to build the walls. When working with concrete the biggest cost is labor. If 3D is only capable of erecting walls, the savings, as outlined in this video, is minimal. So many were naive of the fact after printing all of the specialized trades are still required to finish the home. Which means the sames costs and timeline for completion. Rather than wasting time trying to reinvent one of hundreds of methods we utilize to build homes, methods which vary drastically based several factors, let's work on improving and streamlining existing methods. Prefab/modular should be the most affordable option. However, due to their "green" appeal we find the prefab market is being saturated with high-end boxes with catchy names, stuffed with high-end design and tech. All of which equates to unaffordable homes for those in need of an affordable option. As always there is one new company every few years claiming to reinvent home building. By the time that company goes bust, there is another one making the same exaggerated claims. The current prefab darling is Boxabl. These "homes" they're spitting out are essentially prototypes. And they do not exactly say welcome home when you arrive. Without serious cosmetic alterations and design changes, Boxabl is going to go bust before they open their new state of the art facility. We may see fraud charges before all is settled and done. Something is seriously off with Boxabl. One way to reduce cost is kit homes. Once again the buyer choose a home from their catalog. The home kit is prepared using manufactured plug and play wall panels. These panels would be complete with electrical and plumbing already installed with connectors and plugs. Plumbing would use the Sharkbite push and lock couplers and connectors. The electrical would simply be plugs with a flip lock. Cabinet rails would be pre-installed for the kitchen and bathrooms. Cabinets and vanities with the sinks and fixtures pre-installed simply sit on the rails and get screwed into the wall at the base. The roof/ceiling would be comprised of the same panels. Trades would be required for the foundation, mains electric/gas/water/sewer connections, hvac install, the boiler, the roof, tub/showers/toilets, and testing all of the connections to ensure everything works. SIPs panels are ideally suited for this type of self, family, or community build. Manufacturing of panels with everything ready to plug in to the next panel saves time, money, and reduces waste. However due to their excellent qualities as a superior building material, their cost is five time or more what it should be. Currently SIPs are mainly for higher-end homes and other structures. What we need are non-profit firms to design a catalog of basic homes and manufacture the panel kits for those homes. Home builders could then be matched up with trade schools to reduce cost further by offering their home for hands on training in all of the areas tradesmen are required to ensure code compliance. Building on-site with sticks is too costly and inefficient to produce the number of affordable homes we need. Cheers

[@sethglazier4947]

Not to be a downer, but when it comes to new technologies like this I think its always important to consider that our current homes are the result of knowledge and experience accumulated over literally thousands of years of people building homes. While it may not be obvious to people with only a surface level understanding of construction, I'm sure many of the factors that go into everything about how we build homes, and what we build them out of, are much more complex than we realize. Keep this in mind when a small group of people with little industry experience claim they can revolutionize everything in just a couple of years. Not saying it won't happen, but there are always a lot more kinks to work out than people usually expect.

[@nobreighner]

No, I think we should all just keep making all the same building design mistakes over and over again. The mold remediation people need jobs too.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Silly. Cob is easy and proven with minimal skill. Or even better, earthbag walls which are not reliant on a specific soil composition.

[@walpurgis943]

Rammed earth is not quite as simple as cob or earthbag, but they are much more resistant to animal and plant intrusion. It can be done by hand or mechanically, and is suitable for multistory construction. Loamy soils can be an issue for local materials sourcing, but most sandy and clay-ey soils can be used. It would be better to use loamy soil for agriculture or wilderness restoration anyway though haha.

[@malcolmnicholls2893]

Plenty of cob houses in Dorset. I'd prefer blotting paper.

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

Happy to see some criticism of the project. There is a staggering amount of hype in the 3dp industry.

[@nobreighner]

That very hype drove me to do a video making fun of it.

[@Zcheick]

We have this cool tradition where I live. We take these tall things living in the forest called "trees" and we fell them, cut them up to spec in these places called "sawmills" and we build the houses with the resulting products. Our houses literally grow in(or as) trees. Pretty amazing I know. Also these houses made of "wood", if made properly, last for centuries instead of years max like those mudhuts with no reinforcements.

[@nfcapps]

My professor has a hay bale house. You cover it in cement, but mud would work. Great insulation and grass regrows quickly. The roof is then just roof tiles or wood, way cheaper than these but very similar construction. And you can make them two stories.

[@kevinkent6351]

I'm a hobbyist homebuilder. The only useful thing about 3D-printed clay homes is the unique-ish architecture, which appeals to me. I really do dig the design. Other than that, I don't see a real use.

[@EliosMoonElios]

This shit is a obvious scam to catch investors , always some "innovator" claim they invention will solve a world's problem to lure money.

[@leoriottot8666]

Perhaps because you don’t know what you’re talking about, and you just take the opinion of one random guy on KZbin who spend few hours on internet to destroy something that has future. Do some research by yourself you’ll see that it has so much potential, and it’s too easy for this guy to just break down everything with few arguments, about a new technology wich need time to evolve

[@EliosMoonElios]

@@leoriottot8666 FOUND THE ANGRY FANBOY!

[@leoriottot8666]

@@EliosMoonElios yeah men sorry for the agressivity but l can’t stand anymore people who crush possible future solution to make view on KZbin, l spend 6 month in architecture school working on this subject and it’s obvious that this guy don’t know anything except some sources on the internet, and a pseudo critic view of it, what does this guy bring ? Nothing, just saying wait what they do isn’t 100% good, instead of showing what’s still cool in the project. We can see he don’t know what’s he is talking about. À shame every time someone propose something with good intentions there is a "clever" guy who do nothing ruins it. If you want for example more info on this concept, you can look the website of the IAAC, a university in Barcelona wich work on those subject

[@kevinkent6351]

@@leoriottot8666 what problem, specifically, does this process solve? Be specific.

[@twerkingfish4029]

Are we forgetting that good old fashioned wood framing *can be* carbon negative? Plus, you can usually build at higher densities with wood framing than with current 3d printing. We’ve simply been doing it for so long, that if you want to build 100 million housing units, wood framing is the way to go if you can get sustainable lumber from a semi-local source. And admittedly that’s a big if, in some places. Not to be too skeptical, but I just wonder if we’re focusing too much on innovation rather than what we already know.

[@SaveMoneySavethePlanet]

Exactly. Not all new tech deserves to succeed. Wood and bamboo should continue to dominate the home construction market.

[@benth162]

A 3D printed home out of dirt would do nicely if you lived in Arizona, where there is very little rain. If you want to build in Washington state, you would need to waterproof the outside of the dwelling with some type of sprayed on polymer. Also I see where they would do better by placing tubing between all those wall's honey comb structure, thus allowing fans to flush out the moisture in those segments while allowing for a much faster drying time. Unless you let the walls dry for a month before putting on the roofing thus sealing up the walls.

[@rubengarciajr]

Thank you for the video

[@Davethreshold]

Matt, you do a great job of explaining the caveats of so many subjects that you cover. For instance, the media was on a TEAR for a year about hydrogen fuel cell cars, and how wonderful they would be. NOT so much!

[@TigreBrian]

Matt, great perspective. One interesting thing which folks might be interested to hear about is the development of Graphene Enhanced Concrete. We all know that concrete has hardly changed in 2,000 years. Yes, we have various additives, but basically the structure of concrete hasn't changed all that much since the Romans built with it. But, in a recent white paper I read (Graphene for the Construction Sector), the addition of tiny amounts of high quality Graphene (much less than 1% by weight) into the cement mix radically changed the strength and curing time of poured and printed concrete. This has allowed the company to actually pour real world concrete foundation slabs WITHOUT rebar! And, because much less concrete is needed this has a huge effect on CO2 emissions (not to mention the lack of steel, its mining, production, transportation, labor, etc.). Also, the rapid cure time of the concrete means that construction on the slab can begin much sooner. In 3D printing the rapid cure time and increased strength could mean much quicker printing of thinner cross sections without waiting for printed layers to "set" before printing subsequent layers. I have also read where Graphene enhanced concrete could also turn the walls of a building into a battery! Now that's crazy! Imagine a "Smart Structure", that can monitor the structure of the house and its interior. The possibilities seem endless. Anyway, I find it fascinating... So, while "Dirty Houses" :-) may have their place, I think I'd rather live in a more "permanent" structure. Not to mention resale of the home at a later date, because as you know, reselling a home is basically reusing previous materials, and that can't be bad. Cheaper by far to update a home than to build a new one. I do believe we are still in the infancy of 3D printed homes, and there will be innovations, such as Enhanced Graphene Concrete, which will allow faster construction, with less cost, less concrete, less CO2 emissions, stronger designs (imagine the beautiful futuristic forms that could now be envisioned by architects with stronger thinner cross sections), with long lifespans, and of course, concrete can be recycled.

[@turolretar]

Some say that if you snort graphene it can make all your problems go away

[@jeremyjaffeux6335]

We went from living under clay to stone to wood to metal back to dirt.

[@davidparker5530]

Anyone who has watched construction sites knows that the framing takes the shortest amount of time. It takes months to excavate, level, lay pipes, build a foundation, etc. for a site, then when you finally get to the framing it goes up in just weeks. Then many more months for interior walls, electrical, appliances, etc. 3D printed homes essentially optimize the shortest and least expensive part of home building, the framing. Everything else still has to be done traditionally.

[@rule1capital]

That is why Boxabl will smoke houses like this because they are pre-wired, pre-plumbed, kitchen installed, bathroom installed, HVAC installed, breaker box installed, utility hookups turnkey ready... all made in a couple hours in the factory... the Boxabl wall panels (galvanized steel/polystyrene/magnesium oxide) are way stronger than stick/nail/air gaps, currently take 20 minutes to produce, and will drop that time to 3-5 minutes with new automation equipment being installed in Q2 2023...

[@NakedAvanger]

I love how some of Matts recent videos were about things i knew for a year or longer now and things im really passionate about (natural building, hempcrete, tiny housing, etc.) a profession where i want to build my career in as an environmentalist senior. If some of your next videos are bout the viability of living completely and independently off-gird i'll go nuts :D Keep up the good work!

[@cupbowlspoonforkknif]

You probably see the irony of building a super expensive machine and transporting it to Africa where people have already been building houses from mud by hand for a long time.

[@mfsolutions]

Great points about the applications (low density) and effectiveness in addressing housing for the homeless. I visited a town in South Africa where the majority of the buildings were newer cinderblock with steel roofs... hard to beat this construction method and cost although the carbon footprint of concrete is high... I would also like to emphasize an important point that you mention... Labour in the third world is very cheap. You will never justify displacing $5/day construction workers with a skilled crew to set up and run a 3D printer.

[@jong7513]

That last part is key, and might be a way bigger issue in the field once you try pulling it off.

[@12vLife]

The use of local soil with an additive would be huge. I wonder if they could somehow use my very soft white sandy soil here in Florida? Dig out a pool, print a house with the soil!