3D-Printed Public Housing Unveiled in France (reuters.com)

Researchers have unveiled what they billed as the world's first 3D-printed house to serve as a home in the French city of Nantes, with the first tenants due to move in by June. From a report: Academics at the University of Nantes who led the project said it was the first house built in situ for human habitation using a robot 3D-printer. The robot, known as BatiPrint3D, uses a special polymer material that should keep the building insulated effectively for a century. It took BatiPrint3D around 18 days to complete its part of the work on the house - creating hollow walls that were subsequently filled with concrete for insulation. The 95 square meter (1000 square feet), five-room house will be allocated to a local family which qualifies for social housing, authorities said.

Comments

Russia Russia Russia!

[Anonymous Coward]

Russia beat France, again

Re:I'm an American

[apoc.famine]

There's research behind this too. Of all ways to try to solve homelessness, it turns out that the most effective one is giving people homes. Why? (And to head off snark, we're talking about people being self-sufficient and able to hold down a job and rent an apartment as the end goal.) Because you can't solve the rest of your problems if you're living on the street. You can't get mail, you can't get treatment, you can't reliably field phone calls.

Once you give the homeless a place to stay, suddenly they have all of those. They have an address to put on a resume. Social workers can come visit. Their mental stress goes way down (mental issues are often the cause of homelessness and also exacerbated by it) and that in turn reduces the need to turn to substance abuse. All of that puts people in a much better position to find work and get off the streets.

Sure, there will always be people who just can't get off the streets, but for most, it's doable with support.

An address and a place to sleep at night are bootstraps. No reason to deny people those, when it's near impossible to put their life back together without them.