3 D Housing? Anyone seen these?

[razz]

While I had heard of 3D products, I thought that 3D Housing would be more in the future. Apparently, it is now https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/mar/18/california-housing-coachella-3d-printed-houses?utm_term=7b12cfe4276256ead4da9b8eea7fe5dd&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUK&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUK_email.

"The company’s printers have the capacity to make a 350-sq-ft home in less than 24 hours, said Sam Ruben, the co-founder and chief sustainability officer of Mighty, during a recent tour of the headquarters. Often the printers are set to build a house overnight, while the employees are asleep.

“We are actually limited more by road transport of the buildings than the actual ability to print,” Ruben said.

The Rancho Mirage homes will each feature mid-century modern architecture and consist of a three-bedroom, two-bath primary residence of 1,450 sq ft, along with a secondary residence on the property of two bedrooms and one bath.

Each home’s 10,000-sq-ft lot will have a swimming pool in the back yard and the option to pay extra for amenities such as cabanas, hot tubs, fire pits and outdoor showers. Prices will start at $595,000 for a base 3BR/2BA model and go up to $950,000 for a two-home configuration with upgrades...

Rancho Mirage is not the first place to see 3D-printed homes in recent years. In 2019 a non-profit in Mexico announced the production of 3D-printed homes for low-income families. Meanwhile, 3D-printed homes are scheduled to be installed in Austin, Texas, later this year.

The rise of 3D-printed homes comes as California’s housing crisis continues to rage. The state needs between 1.8m and 3.5m new housing units by 2025 to address the shortage and accommodate projected population growth. In February, Mighty Buildings secured $40m in series B funding."

[iris lilies]

Just recently I ran across the concept of 3-D printed homes and yeah. I don’t get it. I would have to watch a video presentation about what this really means for me to get it.

[Yppej]

That's really expensive.

[JaneV2.0]

The mean price of a house in Rancho Mirage is about $600K.

[SteveinMN]

I've seen the video and it's largely a computer-controlled robot crew squeezing concrete out of a tube according to the directions (corner here, window cutout starts here, etc.). It is entertaining to watch.

It would be nice if that concept could have been applied to homes more people could buy. $600K may be a deal in California, but it gets you a 90th percentile house here in Minnesota (100% almost anyplace outstate that's not on a big lake). Then again, all the furniture Ray and Charles Eames put together out of fiberglass and plywood was originally intended to be "people's furniture" yet dining room chairs they designed go for several hundreds of dollars and the Mid-Century Modern classic Eames Lounge Chair goes for a cool six grand even after decades of production. :(

[jp1]

I imagine that the price is as high as it is because of the cost of the 10,000 sq foot lot that the house sits on.

Edited to add: After a very cursory look on realtor.com it appears that similar sized vacant lots in Rancho Mirage cost from $300k on up.

[GeorgeParker]

Looks like a fad to me. The key phrase is "We are actually limited more by road transport of the buildings than the actual ability to print," This will never be practical as long as they have to print the house sections in a factory and transport them to the building site. When/if they reach a point where they can set up the printer on the building site and quickly move it from lot to lot as each house is completed, then this technology may have potential. Until then it would make more sense to print individual interchangeable wall sections and other easily transportable components.

As historical reference, I'll point out that for decades it's been totally possible to build a complete bathroom in a factory and transport it on a flatbed truck, but do you ever see that being done?

[iris lilies]

Frank Loyd Wright designed concrete block homes in Los Angeles intended to be affordable. I suppose this is similar
ideology.

[GeorgeParker]

Frank Loyd Wright designed concrete block homes in Los Angeles intended to be affordable. I suppose this is similar
ideology.Trust me, dear lady, you do not want to know my opinion of Frank Lloyd Wright! Beginning with the fact that every house he designed included the furniture he wanted it to have in it, and after it was completed and occupied he would drop in for a visit now and then during which if there was a plant of a piece of furniture out of place, he would return it to the spot he intended it to be!

And BTW: HIs concrete block houses were definitely not intended to be affordable.

List of those houses: The Alice Millard House, also known as La Miniatura, was Frank Lloyd Wright’s first textile block house. The Millard house is one of five concrete block homes constructed by Wright in Southern California — others include the Hollyhock House, the Freeman House, the John Storer House, and the Ennis House.

[iris lilies]

Trust me, dear lady, you do not want to know my opinion of Frank Lloyd Wright! Beginning with the fact that every house he designed included the furniture he wanted it to have in it, and after it was completed and occupied he would drop in for a visit now and then during which if there was a plant of a piece of furniture out of place, he would return it to the spot he intended it to be!

And BTW: HIs concrete block houses were definitely not intended to be affordable.

List of those houses: The Alice Millard House (http://millardhouse.com/), also known as La Miniatura, was Frank Lloyd Wright (http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html)’s first textile block house. The Millard house is one of five concrete block homes constructed by Wright in Southern California — others include the Hollyhock House (http://hollyhockhouse.net/), the Freeman House (http://www.lasavvytours.com/samuelfreemanhouse.htm), the John Storer House (http://www.lasavvytours.com/johnstorerhouse.htm), and the Ennis House (http://ennishouse.com/).

Wright’s American System- Built system houses were created in his plan for affordable houses. Yes, he was interested in, and contributed to affordable housing. At least he had affordability as a goal. Whether or not these structures were actually affordable is not my point.

His Usonian homes were intended to be affordable, simple, houses for the middle class. Those are the block ones I am thinking of.

I’m pretty well acquainted with a Usonian style Wright houses because I went on a house tour last summer to a .Usonian Wright house and and sat for a couple hours having drinks drinks in the living room where all original furniture still existed. Even original Upholstery was there. It all was a little shabby. Many ceiling leaks.

[SteveinMN]

Looks like a fad to me. The key phrase is "We are actually limited more by road transport of the buildings than the actual ability to print," This will never be practical as long as they have to print the house sections in a factory and transport them to the building site.
For a couple of decades now, there has been a movement to try to establish upper-scale prefab housing as an alternative to stick-built; typically modern designs. The sales hook is supposed to be the high quality and greater efficiency they can maintain by building panels in a controlled environment using the same workers and standardized processes and leaving to the site just situating the panels and connecting them and connecting utilities.

The effort hasn't progressed much; too many zoning codes treat these structures as mobile homes, which have a completely different reputation and are actively being pushed out of many locales. The price hasn't been competitive with stick-built either, but some of that has to do with the skill levels and transience of the stick-build crews. It would not surprise me to see the 3D-printed house fall into the same legislative hole.

[GeorgeParker]

Wright’s American System- Built system houses were created in his plan for affordable houses. Yes, he was interested in, and contributed to affordable housing....His Usonian homes were intended to be affordable, simple, houses for the middle class. Those are the block ones I am thinking of.Those aren't the concrete block ones I was referring too, nor are they what comes up when you Google his name and "concrete block homes".

But primarily you and I have a translation problem. "Affordable housing" is the code word for "Houses built for poor people who can't afford a house." It also usually means housing that is owned or subsidized by the government or a charitable organization like Habitat For Humanity https://www.habitat.org/

"Affordable" in this context has nothing to do with middle-class or middle-income, although it's easy to see how Wright would have classified houses for middle-income people as "affordable" compared to typical architect-designed houses that were usually one of a kind. (Big Secret: Most houses used to be designed by a local builder or carpenter who copied or adapted a style he was familiar with to suit the needs of his customer, not by an actual architect.)

Some areas (Silicon Valley for example) have a problem because housing demand is so high and salaries are so high that even middle-income families can't afford to live there, but that's a different problem from what is usually meant by affordable housing, and in my experience it is refered to by different terms such as "housing affordability".

[iris lilies]

Yes, I think when Wright was thinking “affordable” he meant for middle-class people, not the typical clientele of architects.

As an aside, we’ve had architects for two of our houses. That is not a big deal service.

[GeorgeParker]

As an aside, we’ve had architects for two of our houses. That is not a big deal service.But they weren't Frank Lloyd Wright. ;)

As an aside, Google says "Architects' fees vary widely, depending on the project, the local economy, and the architect's experience and reputation. Fees typically range from $2,014 to $8,375, with an average of $5,126. But fees can be much higher than that, depending on the size and complexity of the job."

And yes, when you make $25,000/year gross. $5,000-$8,000 extra expense really is a big deal compared to using a stock blueprint you can buy for less than $500 or a blueprint your builder already owns and has build 50 times for other people.

[ToomuchStuff]

There was a video I saw a couple weeks ago. The first for sale one is priced at $300k:

https://youtu.be/bj8kZ3llS5E

[iris lilies]

There was a video I saw a couple weeks ago. The first for sale one is priced at $300k:

https://youtu.be/bj8kZ3llS5E
I think this is a handsome modern house, the exterior I mean. I’m talking about the one in the video. I’m not sure what I think about cement interior walls but I sorta like that texture.

[Tradd]

IL, if this is in CA, I actually think concrete isn't a bad idea, especially if it's in a wlldfire prone area

[jp1]

IL, if this is in CA, I actually think concrete isn't a bad idea, especially if it's in a wlldfire prone area

I’d be curious how these houses do in earthquakes.

[iris lilies]

I’d be curious how these houses do in earthquakes.I thought of that. I doubt they have the reinforcement that is required of concrete structures in earthquake country.

[razz]

Google found this house built with walls 8 foot thick in 2016.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/82878/3d-printed-house-built-withstand-powerful-earthquakes

[GeorgeParker]

I think this is a handsome modern house, the exterior I mean. I’m talking about the one in the video. I’m not sure what I think about cement interior walls but I sorta like that texture.Cement walls have a high thermal mass. IOW they store a lot of heat. So a cement house would maintain a much steadier temperature inside during hot days and cold nights. That's good. In fact I've very much noticed this effect when living in old houses with plaster-and-lath walls vs drywall.

But it would be better if outside walls of these cement houses had a layer of insulation on the outside or in the middle. I am also very concerned about there not being any metal or nylon reinforcement in these walls, especially if they build them in earthquake country. And now almost everywhere is subject to occasional small earthquakes.

[razz]

I toured a house made of concrete. The owner had to struggle to find a builder which eventually meant an institution contractor, had to work with the local planning who wanted only stick houses but the house got built. The owner was involved as a professor of some discipline who could demonstrate and had the $$$ to pay that it could be done. While he had done extensive research and calculation, he freely admitted he failed with one important feature. There was no sound absorption in concrete as there is in a stick house. Every sound echoed so when he invited the group who had created the house for a celebration, they could not hear one another due to the noise. He then added room dividers to absorb sound.
So my question would be - will the rooms echo loudly?

[GeorgeParker]

So my question would be - will the rooms echo loudly?Probably.

Putting the walls at a very slight angle to each other would reduce that and so would having a rough surface on the walls. And covering most of the surfaces with tapestries, carpets, or any sound-absorbing material would help a lot. But if you've ever been inside an empty concrete block garage or a concrete-walled tunnel, knowing a concrete house will echo like crazy ought to be a no-brainer.

[ToomuchStuff]

Depends on the design. Look at how open so many concrete structures are. One could frame out, the outside of the house, using metal trusses (effectively no termite issues), then come back in with metal studs and put the walls where they want, after the outside is up.