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"E-mailable" House Snaps Together Without Nails (clemson.edu)
MikeChino writes: Your next house could snap together like a jigsaw puzzle without the use of any power tools. Clemson University students designed and built Indigo Pine, a carbon-neutral house that exists largely as a set of digital files that can be e-mailed to a wood shop anywhere in the world, CNC cut, and then assembled on-site in a matter of days. “Indigo Pine has global application,” says the Clemson team. “Because the house exists largely as a set of digital files, the plans can be sent anywhere in the world, constructed using local materials, adapted to the site, and influenced by local culture.”
“Because the house exists largely as a set of digital files, the plans can be sent anywhere in the world, constructed using local materials, adapted to the site, and influenced by local culture.”
Geez, don't know what it's going to be made of yet they still claim it's "carbon neutral".
And you'd think anyone with access to a laser cutter would have access to nails.
It's a cool project. Probably good for mass production, though plywood tends to be about 2-3x as expensive per board-foot, so there would need to be a lot of efficiency built in to match the raw material cost.
Also, it will be very difficult to customize.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Nice work, but it's pretty clear from the article that only the structural bits go together without fasteners (mostly). All of the interior finishes, doors, windows, etc. all clearly use conventional screws/nails. Not surprising, but not really the 'snap-together' house that the headline indicates, unless you plan to live in a bare structure open to the elements.
Or, something like that.
I'm pretty sure if your local lumber yard has a CNC machine they probably also sell hammers and nails.
Standard blueprints can already be e-mailed.
I would say the majority of existing homeowners did not use a single power tool to build their house either.
Will this meet building codes.
I see dimensional lumber in some of those photos.
Surely every potential homeowner / builder will have a cnc machine.
My mail client does not have the receive plywood feature. Can i upgrade?
And made this house.
No bolts? Thats a huge porch roof that needs to be secured lets the next hurricane rip it off. Sure you could go old school and use post and beam style but you still have to tie it down to the foundation.
Speaking of the foundation it looks like many small concrete blocks hopefully over slab on grade. It's not big enough to use as a service crawlspace I hope there is never a plumbing or vermin issue. There will be a vermin issue as it's a magnet for rodents and such. Again how they planning on fastening it to the ground so it does not blow away without bolts. Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods happen even in some hippy dippy microhouse.
Combo PV and hot water, it generally makes sense you're effectively cooling the PV panels and using the waste heat.
My mid 70's passive solar house did most of this and did it better, a basement floor drain doubles as outside air natural convection will cool the house and it preheats outside air in the winter. My 1954 well architected home did the math for correct overhangs and orientation to deal with solar gain without throwing ugly boxes around the windows. Correct plantings do wonders leaves for shade in summer not so much in winter.
No sir I dont like it.
I'm tired of seeing these things done by people in the south and sunny California where you don't need good insulation. Lots of BS about outdoor living spaces etc. Lets do the Solar Decathlon in Fargo North Dakota in February and see how these piles of lumber actually stack up. There's already a well defined system of building using SIP panels that provide significant improvement to the insulation value of the house system. They work well in hot and cold climates and are built form CNC cut panels that slot together. Or you can use the styrofoam and concrete building block method. Either method of building is going to give you a better insulated home that will have a lower energy impact on the environment over it's life time than what's been presented in this article. The only potential advantage of this kind of CNC cut panel house is for the DIY builder which could be valuable but it's still sadly lacking compared to other existing processes
It all starts at 0
It just sucks, and its why all your snap-tite models fall apart and you end up using model glue on them anyway.
Some things are not meant to be put together in a half-ass flimsy way so the first strong breeze shakes it loose.
Good job Clemson, you caught up to what Testes was doing 80 years ago.
Not exactly sure why they think that architects don't use digital files for any house that gets built. The paper plans you see are for the builders who aren't carrying a fragile computer around the job site.
Perhaps we should require that professors who work at these universities have some sort of actual real world experience on an ongoing regular basis so they don't repeat the same shit 12 year olds were doing before they were born.
"Testes"?
What kind of models you playing with son?
Most homes in developing countries are built using bricks, clay, or concrete and cement. Wood, glass, steel and aluminum are expensive and rare in most of the world.
So why can't these digital files be adapted to clay, brick or cement construction?
Fundamentally all the materials have enormous strength in compression. We knew we could pile brick on brick, dirt on dirt and build enormous, stable enduring structures 5 to 10 thousand years ago. But all of them are brittle and they have no real strength in tension. They have very little elasticity. For a design to "snap" together, you need a little bit of elasticity and some tensile strength. You can not "bend" a concrete beam a little, snap it into place and it would not "spring" back to assume old shape with old strength. Bent concrete is dead concrete.
R & D on developing cheap housing for the developing nations is a very active area of research. Many universities around the world are working on it. But most solutions are dull, and do not lend themselves to flashy headlines. Back when I was in college, the very first rupee I earned in my life came from the Centre for Rural Development, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. We were working on natural gas from cow waste, cottage industries suitable for rural areas, efficient wood burning stoves, and cheaper construction techniques for mud huts. Internet has a role to play in rural development. But it is not going to be as simple as mailing a few files around the world.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Wouldn't a good option be to simply get a couple old shipping containers and do a little cutting and welding? You could use spray-on insulation and cover it in drywall. Would also be heavier and structurally much more sound than plywood. The stackable nature of containers means you could easily build a 2 story house, by building stairs and using 1 container for a hallway and 1 room and an adjoining container divided into 2-3 rooms. 4 old 40ft containers would get you 1200 sq ft and would cost 10-12k total. Bonus points for being green by using "reclaimed" items like the old shipping containers, reclaimed lumber for flooring/cabinets/furniture, etc.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
What I'm really looking for is a house that exists as a set of digital files that can be sent to any woodworking shop and...
Paper plans are there for a different reason: Paper plans are stamped and signed by the architect/engineer and are the record/permit/contract set of construction drawings. I can't see any contractor worth his salt saying "I'll build that building based on a computer file that can be updated by remote push down"; there are to many chances of undocumented changes, issues on change orders and lawsuits over undocumented changes. And its not like engineering, architecture and contracting don't have enough of those problems.
I see is that there is plenty of dimensional lumber being used in that structural system. Different areas of the world use different dimensional lumber sizes than the US. Some areas of the world don't have dimensional lumber. Some areas of the world don't have the infrastructure required (dimensional lumber, CNC machines, trucks to ship the lumber).
I have concerns with the long term stability, durability of the structure. Nails and glue have been in use for a while (hundreds, if not thousands of years) because they work.
As a construction experiment in using new technology to find new ways to design and build buildings it is an interesting experiment. I applaud them for trying this. Its like looking at the concept cars that Ford, Nissan, Subaru, etc release every year and are loaded up with all sorts of outlandish features, some of which will obviously never get to production, some need some refinement and some are pretty good. I have no problem with someone deciding to build the equivalent of a concept car. Don't be surprised if your concept takes a long time to be adopted by the building industry. It will take that long to be vetted by architects, engineers, suppliers and contractors. Hell - it took almost twenty years for contractors to adopt Pro-Press pipe fittings as the preferred option over copper sweated fittings (and that is just copper pipe).
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
made with a 3D printer so when it is all done it is monolithic and practically able to withstand tornadoes and hurricanes https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
...to any part of the world and used for the construction of an object in situm, provided the right kind workshop and source materials are available.
Who would have thought such an advanced idea would be discovered in *2015*? SHOCK-ING.
Do people know that you can also e-mail blue prints for standard houses too? Does that make the house "e-mailable?"
I don't know why, but outrageously stupid statements are becoming more and more common. No, this house doesn't "exist largely as a set of digital files". It exists largely as tons of wood. The *instructions* are digital files.
Mortise and tenon predate nails and what we'd consider a suitable glue. Advances don't happen if people always stick only with what has always worked and not try other things that may work better or differently.
Not as much as you might think. Until the industrial revolution, nails had to be made one at a time by a blacksmith and were thus freaking expensive.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Anywhere it freezes in the winter (which covers a rather large swath of the world, but certainly not all of it), you need to establish the foundation below the soil frost depth or face your foundation heaving each winter and slowly but surely twisting your building into collapse. This building seems to have been designed for zones where the ground does not freeze.
Also, what happens when the nice solar panels get covered in six feet of snow? Oh, right, not made for that application. And when the wind blows hard and tears off the nice deck / car park? Right, again, not made for that application, either.
So, OK, they designed a house for temperate climates with moderate weather in a way that does not require nails or screws. An interesting design challenge, somewhat like, "let's see how fast the two of us can run in a three-legged race!" It's fun, you might learn something about design, but isn't really all that practical. Moreover, I see a lot of very expensive finish ply in those photos, so this design isn't intended for low-income housing.
Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
Nails and glue have been in use for a while (hundreds, if not thousands of years) because they work.
Japanese have been building houses and temples without any nails and glue for hundreds of years. Here's a couple of videos I came across recently. They swear by it. I'm by no means an expert so I can't go any deeper into the subject. But clearly neither are you.
I can't see any contractor worth his salt saying "I'll build that building based on a computer file that can be updated by remote push down"
Nice straw man, and this is "5 Insightful"? The fuck?
Who the heck is talking of remote push down or undocumented changes? Do you even live in the same world I do? When the plans are final and approved, every contractor - at least in the U.S. - already gets their paper copies based on digital files that were a part of the bid package. They can also get those digitally, and have their site workers use whatever digital tech they care for to view those if they prefer that over dead trees.
The rest of your post makes sense, but please stop with the imaginary problems. Nobody is optically copying blueprints anymore.
A successful API design takes a mixture of software design and pedagogy.
Umm, yeah. I live in Nebraska. Here, we have these things called "tornados." They're super windy god-sized vacuum cleaners that rake across the landscape periodically.
Do I really want a snap-together house the next time the tornado sirens start going?
We just use bricks. I fail to see the innovative aspect of this being "emailable" or not using nails. It could potentially cut out a few (architect, constructionworker) middle mans if in one manages to email this to his woodworker, but i still recon the one who builds it is not the one who pays the bill. Perhaps this is an idea for the the EU accommodating DIY inclined refuges, they can occupy themselves with building homes.
I thrust in the stupid statements peaking right now while social media lowered the norm. I cant imagine any "the email-able space station" news in the future.
Freaking expensive? Sure, that's why they find so many of them in the ground. A good blacksmith can make a nail in 7 strokes of the hammer.
Oh, you mean 'catastrophic man-made global warming' isn't a massive scam by a bunch of completely corrupt 'scientists' who are paid a fortune for trying to scare the rest of the population into paying them even more for their 'vital research' on 'climate change'.
www.climatedepot.com
www.wattsupwiththat.com
Gee ... shipped anywhere they have CNC milling equipment AND plywood.
Not really as useful to the rural poor and disaster areas as it sounds if you need all that infrastructure.
If we use up all of our clay, we'll be in deep trouble.
I think I said that advances occur very slowly in the construction industry. Mortise and tenon has been abandoned. Why? Because something came along that was cheaper/faster with all other things being equal. Eventually something will come along that will replace nails and glue. I don't know what it is.
I won't use a technology/system that hasn't already been vetted through the insurance and rating agencies (UL, et al). If you come to me trying to get me to schedule/specify a product that hasn't made it past the rating agencies I'll throw you out with the bath water. I don't have time for untested and unrated equipment.
There are plenty of competing technologies that are tested and rated (have the UL mark) and are still trying to break into competitive construction in a big manner:
Precut lumber (mostly in use in custom home construction but not much elsewhere)
Engineered lumber products (it shows up when space is the constraint)
Automated concrete laying (Not matter what people say, this is still experimental)
Pro-Press fittings for refrigerant piping (just came on the market, the contractor is willing to give it a go with our blessing)
Integrated duct/insulation systems (This keeps coming up as an alternative to galvanized and keeps getting shot down)
Alternative grease duct systems (Fire rated systems that take less space)
3D printing (This is a novelty right now, but one that works. A couple of architects have specified it for difficult metal fittings in unusual buildings).
I could name a half dozen other technologies that are coming into maturity and their adoption is based upon preference or "We did it this way when I was a whipper snapper and you will to".
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
Look at those long wood beams... perfect, very pretty, and also expensive! Is there a house behind it? Very little on the porch is covered on their website, and it doesn't show up on any of their "sustainability" materials. Meanwhile, it features in half of the pictures on the competition website.
If they want to point out how they're using local materials and these new techniques, maybe get rid of that massive redwood "porch" that is neither local, inexpensive, nor innovative.
"exists largely as a set of digital files that can be e-mailed to a wood shop anywhere in the world"
of how futile our existence is.
Yes, that is all locked in in PDF or an approved format that cannot be edited after the fact.
I have seen some sleazy attempts by architects and engineers to slide things in under radar. Undocumented changes between Bid sets and contract sets for instance. Luckily I was only the commissioning agent on that. You can bet there was a lawsuit over that little stunt when it got caught.
Architectural plans are like computer source code with a couple of differences: You only compile once.
Every edutainment channel has at least one show about tiny houses. Most of them are showcasing how nice they look, while ignoring the utility, economic, and environmental shortcomings of "going tiny". When your tiny house generates 4 tons of garbage, you're doing environmentalism the wrong way.
This is interesting but wouldn't adult sized Legos be easier?
That's great. What with the unlimited supply of blacksmiths doing nothing but making 3000 nails a day...
I'm having a hard time seeing any real kind of innovation or advantage to this house design. It looks like a bunch of exposed lumber fit together, nothing a good carpenter couldn't do on site with the proper plans. The design seems limited to a warmer climate as well and could have some issues dealing with severe weather.
When people moved they would burn their home down and collect the squared nails to be reused in the new home.
And gluten free!
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
Jesus must have been quite popular then, he got 4 nails for free.
I didn't think the rest of the post made any sense, either. This isn't being made out of 1/8" thick stamped balsa wood. It's much bigger and (presumably) designed to be much more sturdy because it's got different goals. The rest of the post is just as much of a strawman.
Traditional Japanese joinery forgoes nails for the most part, but even a traditional western house with nails can be put together without power tools... a saw and hammer makes it a bit more work that using power tools but certainly not any more work than a CNC kit house.
Seriously? Yeah, snap together house is cool, but making a big tech splash because you can fucking email it?
Holy fuck sauce batman, get on the bat phone, someone figured out you can email blue prints to places for fabrication.
And what the fuck is carbon neutral? The blue prints because you emailed them through the shit ton of electronics chewing on coal? Or the wood the shop uses to create it, from the trees they cut down with power tools, which used carbon based material to create, which consume gasoline or power to operate. My god, everyone is a politician.
970 square feet is bigger than my house, and it doesn't feel tiny. Other houses in my development are 720 square feet, and they have been lived in by ordinary families for 60 years.
(Source)
Clearly, we should continue using iron nails, wood glue, and various putties like our neolithic ancestors did, instead of some flimsy-ass cheap-ass construction technique that, when done properly, will only last for like, 8 centuries.
Or maybe, you have no fucking clue what you're talking about, and assume that current construction methods are selected for their durability and reliability, rather than the fact that our industrial scales make them far cheaper, even if the house falls over and needs major structural improvements and renovation in 20-30 years.
Perhaps we should require that all commenters on Slashdot have some sort of actual real-world experience on an ongoing, regular basis so they don't repeat the same shit 12 year olds were saying before they were born.
Where did the 4th one go? I swear it was 3 nails. One for each hand and a single through both feet. The Romans sure weren't wasting an extra nail!
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
I think you could buy all materials, blueprints and instructions from Sears for like a thousand dollars, including shipping. Then add several hundred hours of sweat equity to construct it.
A pretty high quality one still around is the Nixon birthhouse at his library in Yorba Linda. I think it has a Great Room, a couple of bedrooms and bathroom. I've seen others preserved in Western mining towns. Pre-manufactured homes eventually superceded these.
It may have been three but they were really big nails.
When you finish building the house, advertisements and porn suddenly start displaying all over the walls, ceilings, etc. Yep. Malware in the email.
Linda's cedar homes has specialized in custom homes from logs milled to perfection so that snap assemble without much nailing or insulation. They are not milled locally but that's a good thing. Shipping raw logs or having large mills distributed around the country would be more wasteful than shipping the final logs. The homes they make are stunning custom masterpeices not prefab panel houses.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Cow farts and Bindweed?
Says the guy with no experience calling out the guy who actually works in the fucking industry. Meanwhile in the real world he is correct. Stringent and tight policies are followed, not whatever someone comes up with because
It's shiny and new. This isn't the tech industry.
They nailed through the wrist, not the hand.
On a deserted island out in the pacific where the military needs to stash "stuff" CNC ply constructions soldiers jigsaw together no electricity required win-win.
Solar Decathalon competition optimized architecture for affordable environmentally sustainable energy contributing urban dwellings for human habitation - Loser.
You wouldn't download a house would you?
The Gypsies (AKA 'gyptians) stole it, which is why they have permission directly from God to steal and it is not accounted a sin for them.
(You think I'm kidding, but I'm not. See Mieczyslaw Dowojno-Sylwestrowicz, in Gypsy Lore Journal, i. 1889, p. 253.)
N/T
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Wow, you're right! You found an example of building that doesn't use nails therefore the gp is wrong, nails haven't been in use for a long time.
Go back to arguing with your cat. You may not win debates any more often, but we won't have to hear it.
Yes, there's some hyperbole here - it may not be 100.0000% carbon neutral, but it's almost certainly closer than the buildings that you're currently working/living in.
Southern Pine is a very fast growing tree, so replacing the trees used to make the plywood used in it's construction won't take too long. Note that it's made from plywood, not dimensional lumber (watch the video to see how the "studs" go together). In the US the standard size is 4' x 8', in Europe (who honestly probably won't build one of these since they're used to concrete block + brick construction) the standard size is 125 x 250cm (4.1' x 8.2') which is close enough - there'll be more waste but that can be composted easily enough, or turned into wafer-board.
The "without nails" part of the title is not correct. Their video says they'll assemble it using only hand labor and hand-held tools (i.e. no forklifts, and maybe no air tools, but electric saws and drills are ok, since they'll presumably be recharged from solar panels). Even if it's built in coastal areas with tough wind load requirements, they can still add hurricane straps and tie-downs. The only complex tooling required is the wood CNC table. And that's a local investment that can be used over and over again.