3d printing of homes is a reality. How can we do better? (www.alquist3d.com)

submitted 2 years ago by meyotch@slrpnk.net to c/open_source_ecology@slrpnk.net

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The technology is here now. This house is a boring square cracker box, which you would expect from Habitat for Humanity and a proof of concept. However, the freedom of 3-D printing allows you to make almost any shape that you can imagine that is physically possible.

Modern houses are shaped the way they are because of ease of construction and cost effectiveness, mostly.

How can we use the new freedom offered by the technology to make entirely new structures that take advantage of the freedom of form and reduced waste in construction?

I’m thinking of things like amazing windows and passive climate control structures inspired by how termites manage the climate in their mounds. Does anyone have any interesting forms or shapes they’d make?

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[-] overzeetop@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

You answered your question:

modern houses are shaped the way they are because of ease of construction and cost effectiveness…

The freedom to construct free-form structures does little to alter the efficiency. Round rooms have more square footage per wall area than square and spherical shapes have more volume than cylinders or cubes per square foot of exterior. What they gain in theoretical thermal efficiency they lose in other ways. A good example is a bed. A square bed fits better in a square room, and most beds are square.

The majority of the freedom is on artistic expression or layout customization. No matter how perfect the layout might be for an owner, the more custom a house is the less adaptable it is for life changes, new/future owners, and changes of use. One of the biggest advantages of a boring-ass box is its universality and customization options.

Edit - sorry for not answering your question directly. There are ways we could leverage 3D concrete printing - such as ribbed/strengthened below-grade foundations (basements).

this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023

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Open Source Ecology is Network of Farmers, Engineers, and Supporters Building the Global Village Construction Set.

The Global Village Construction Set (GVCS) is a modular, DIY, low-cost, high-performance platform that allows for the easy fabrication of the 50 different Industrial Machines that it takes to build a small, sustainable civilization with modern comforts.

The goal of Open Source Ecology is to create an open source economy – an efficient economy which increases innovation by open collaboration.

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Key Features of the GVCS

Open Source - we freely publish our 3d designs, schematics, instructional videos, budgets, and product manuals on our open source wiki and we harness open collaboration with technical contributors.
Low-Cost - The cost of making or buying our machines are, on average, 8x cheaper than buying from an Industrial Manufacturer, including an average labor cost of $15 hour for a GVCS fabricator.
Modular - Motors, parts, assemblies, and power units can interchange, where units can grouped together to diversify the functionality that is achievable from a small set of units.
User-Serviceable - Design-for-disassembly allows the user to take apart, maintain, and fix tools readily without the need to rely on expensive repairmen.
DIY - (do-it-yourself) The user gains control of designing, producing, and modifying the GVCS tool set.
Closed Loop Manufacturing - Metal is an essential component of advanced civilization, and our platform allows for recycling metal into virgin feedstock for producing further GVCS technologies - thereby allowing for cradle-to-cradle manufacturing cycles
High Performance - Performance standards must match or exceed those of industrial counterparts for the GVCS to be viable.
Flexible Fabrication - It has been demonstrated that the flexible use of generalized machinery in appropriate-scale production is a viable alternative to centralized production.
Distributive Economics - We encourage the replication of enterprises that derive from the GVCS platform as a route to truly free enterprise - along the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy.
Industrial Efficiency - In order to provide a viable choice for a resilient lifestyle, the GVCS platform matches or exceeds productivity standards of industrial counterparts.

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