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Netherlands Will Welcome Its First Community of 3D-Printed Homes (smithsonianmag.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Netherlands' first functional 3D-printed home will be ready to welcome occupants as early as next year. According to The Guardian's Daniel Boffey, the one-story, two-bedroom house is the first and smallest of five 3D-printed concrete homes set for construction in the Dutch city of Eindhoven. The five-year initiative, known as Project Milestone, aims to combat the country's shortage of skilled bricklayers and revitalize the architectural industry. Project Milestone emerged as a collaboration between the Eindhoven University of Technology, a global leader in 3D printing, and Dutch construction company Van Wijnen. Real estate manager Vesteda, materials company Saint Gobain-Weber Beamix and engineering firm Witteveen+Bos also contributed to the project.
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So no more cookie cutter homes?
I've no idea if we really have a shortage of bricklayers here in the Netherlands. Most homes I see going up are prefab concrete with a faux brick cladding glued on. Most brick work is for new luxury houses or repair work on older ones.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
If you read TFA (I know, /.) you find out very quickly. The printer is a robotic cement/concrete squirting arm that builds up the structure, replacing manual labor required to do traditional form setting and removal.
The very short piece leaves lots and lots of questions - installation of utilities, how is rebar being placed (if it is), is this regular cement/concrete or some special formulation, etc.
Some of these questions are answered at the Project Milestone website.
One of those advantages is that the concrete printer has the ability to lay concrete only where it is needed constructively. Traditionally poured concrete is solid, and contains much more concrete than is needed constructively. More is being used, which is bad for CO2 emissions, because with producing cement a lot of this greenhouse gas is released.
With 3D concrete printing, very fine concrete structures are possible. In the traditional pouring of concrete, the formwork determines the shape of concrete. With concrete prints, builders will soon be able to make concrete details as small as a pea, and round, hollow or convex shapes. This makes concrete buildings and constructions with completely new forms possible.
Another new option is the printing of different types, qualities and colors of concrete, all in one integrated product. This means that a complete wall can be printed with all necessary functionalities. Such a wall has to be reinforced with fibers of wire that insulate, and on the outside must be kept dirt-repellent, and on the inside a layer that ensures pleasant acoustics. Further, it contains the required recesses and internal drainage pipes of waterproof concrete. This makes the construction process much faster.
It also has some pictures of the cement being printed.
Still leaves me with questions about the engineering involved though.
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"Netherlands Will Welcome Its First Community of Homes Pooped Out of a Robot "!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I thought bricklaying was a done deal, a fully solved problem. Seriously, robots build it faster!
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
A clever architect could parameterize their design to crank out 100s of unique houses from the same prototype.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
in the USA especially in tornado alley, because wood frame houses almost always gets torn to pieces, it would be nice to have my whole house completely tornado-proof, just get some steel shutters i can quickly close during tornado watches & warnings, i think a monolithic concrete house made with a 3D printer would be able to build a house capable of withstanding a tornado
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3D printed home have got to be the most expensive way possible.
It is a concrete dispensing hose hooked to an actuator, controlled by a Raspberry Pi.
Why do you think it is expensive?
Shortage of bricklayers? How about training sim bricklayers. And not pay them refugee wages.
Where are you hiring bricklayers? They certainly aren't being paid "refugee wages". You can make a fine living in the skilled trades and there is a shortage in labor. The problem isn't that it doesn't pay well. The problem is that it's hard work and not glamorous. Nobody dreams of being a bricklayer when they are a child and our education system certainly doesn't promote it as a respectable profession.
3D printed home have got to be the most expensive way possible.
Pretty much. Unless this is some sort of marketing stunt or proof of concept for something I don't really see the point. Looking at what they made, these "houses" are remarkably ugly and appear highly impractical. I know "3D printing" along with "AI" are the hot buzzwords these days but let's not pretend this is anything we need to really worry about just yet.
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You might as well say my house was grown because the wood came from trees that grew in the forest... The rest of the materials and construction were manufactured and hand-assembled.
Concrete construction is indefinably not 'green'. But some folks are OK to overlook this because 3D printing of homes is cool, and somehow deemed as an improvement (for some untold reason).
https://inhabitat.com/11-green...
indefinably? How did I do that? .....definitely
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Sorry, I'm probably not buying any house the architect describes as being intentionally erratic. I prefer a dependably predictable house.
in the USA especially in tornado alley, because wood frame houses almost always gets torn to pieces, it would be nice to have my whole house completely tornado-proof,
You can already do that. It's just going to cost a bloody fortune. 3D printing will not solve that problem. Buildings robust enough to withstand a tornado are inherently going to be more expensive than those which aren't, typically by a lot. It's almost certainly cheaper to rebuild than it is to build a what amounts to a bunker.
, i think a monolithic concrete house made with a 3D printer would be able to build a house capable of withstanding a tornado
Depends on the design. Just being concrete isn't enough. It has to be reinforced concrete of an adequate thickness with appropriate sealing and ventilation. Remember that tornados do things like throw cars through the air. It's going to be rather expensive to build a building strong enough to withstand impact from a car that has been flung through the air.
In the immortal words of Ron White, It's not THAT the wind's a blowin'. It's WHAT the wind's a blowin.
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One of those advantages is that the concrete printer has the ability to lay concrete only where it is needed constructively. Traditionally poured concrete is solid, and contains much more concrete than is needed constructively. More is being used, which is bad for CO2 emissions, because with producing cement a lot of this greenhouse gas is released.
I doubt it could beat foamed concrete blocks.
It would be interesting if they had dual extruders, one printing concrete, and one printing insulation foam. Then you could get solid-insulated concrete-shell structures. You would still need to leave "chases" for pipes and electrical wiring, but the vast majority of the structure could be done without human labor.
Or have a significant portion of our dwellings underground.
Not really an option in a lot of places and a LOT more expensive to build than above ground dwellings. Plus you have to deal with removing groundwater in most places so you'd better have some pretty reliable power for the pumps and well designed drainage.
Not only would the damage from a tornado be much less, heating/cooling would require much less energy.
Then you drown when the rain and floods that routinely accompanies the tornado floods your underground bunker. Or you get trapped inside from debris that lands on top of your hobbit hole. No this isn't hypothetical either. Plus you have to live underground with limited natural light which isn't as much fun as you might imagine. Yes there are some advantages to being underground but there are a lot more disadvantages for most of us.
I think we have the technologies to make water proof underground dwellings and the means to move the water to a different location.
If it is fully water proof then it also is air proof which presents certain problems. Water doesn't just come from below. Yes we can make dwellings that can route the water appropriate from underneath (for $$$) but you can't make it sealed from above unless you start making things really complicated and expensive. And then when it rains (or worse floods) you had better be able to remove the water faster than it comes in. And rains and floods are a real problem when tornadoes and hurricanes are a blowin'.
Or maybe people recognise this approach uses less concrete, and so is indeed an improvement.
Or maybe people recognise this approach uses less concrete, and so is indeed an improvement.
Use less than what?