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The world's first 3D-printed neighborhood is being built in Mexico for families living on $3 a day

by tagiscom
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https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/12/b...rnd/index.html


The 33-foot printer pipes out a concrete mix that hardens when it dries, building the walls one layer at a time. It takes 24 hours over several days to build two houses at the same time -- that's about two times faster than it takes New Story to build a home with regular construction.

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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Interesting concept but a better article/photos at


    https://www.popularmechanics.com/tec...-neighborhood/

    Some things I don't 'get' about this:

    A California company is soliciting donations to build these houses in Mexico...while california has a real affordable housing problem.

    The photos in the link above show exterior and interior of the 'new homes' - attractive, livable...but not viable in the US? I can think of lots of people who would be happy with a low cost, small, environmentally responsible home.



    Found pricing info:


    https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printed-house-cost/
    https://www.businessinsider.com/3d-h...o-print-2018-9
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  • Profile picture of the author Odahh
    There are many affordable options for building homes to cheaper with lower heating and cooling costs .

    In the US the main storage assest of wealth is real estate .and their homes .and a main source of revenue for cities is property taxes.

    So the best way to increase the value of house is to restrict new building and prevent low cost houses from being built that reduce popery values .

    I'm not Al fan of the entire house being 3dprinted but you could probably 3d print parts of the house on site and assemble those into nice looking houses.

    I think you can buy kit log houses in parts of the Us that cost a little more than these and have better square footage.
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    • Profile picture of the author Gabriel Hummus
      I was curious why I didn't do this in California myself. In the Inland Empire, there is still inexpensive land. When I first heard about this a year ago, it was the first thing I thought about. It doesn't just have to be for the homeless in particular. This is a non-profit, I understand, but someone could make a lot of money providing low-cost housing. Cheap vinyl for car decals could even make enough to provide public transportation in LA or the bay area with a free or low cost shuttle. An hour of shuttle travel plus an hour of public transport for a low-cost home is something that many individuals can struggle with.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    Why aren't you a fan of potentially 3d printing houses like this? At a cost of $4k-10k for a 600-800 sq foot home....it's a bargain. Could be an answer to public housing in some areas - could help ease the homeless problem by using the cheaper versions that are one room plus bath and use communal kitchens in a development.



    In the US the real problem is the same one tiny homes have faced - outdated building codes being used to maintain 'property values' by requiring larger homes with stringent regulations not being updated to reflect improvements in building.


    Building codes are one of the slowest government 'thingies' to change from what I've seen both working in real estate and owning homes. For example, in this 'copied' home in future it would be possible to eliminate many of the 'inspections' now required....if the PLAN meets specifications and the materials are approved - that would be sufficient. Getting local government planning departments on board is another issue altogether.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
    An interesting material is "aircrete" which is basically concrete mixed with Dove dish soap to create foam bubbles so it's about 90% air. I don't know if it can be used in 3D printers or not, but I'm guessing someone will try. It can be poured into prefab molds which may be as good.

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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    I doubt you could do this in california -or in most other states - building regulations and other current laws would prohibit it. Years ago it was proposed to build large buildings with 'sleeping compartments' similar to what you see on trains (and in japan) and local building codes would not allow that as an option to provide safe sleeping areas for the hoimeless.


    Update to this story;


    https://www.fastcompany.com/90440406...s-first-houses
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    • Profile picture of the author Odahh
      Originally Posted by Kay King View Post

      I doubt you could do this in california -or in most other states - building regulations and other current laws would prohibit it. Years ago it was proposed to build large buildings with 'sleeping compartments' similar to what you see on trains (and in japan) and local building codes would not allow that as an option to provide safe sleeping areas for the hoimeless.


      Update to this story;


      https://www.fastcompany.com/90440406...s-first-houses
      the reason those places do not get built has nothing to do with code.. in new york where they where putting homeless in luxury hotel rooms in the richest part of the city and basically the riches zip code in the country ..what did many of these men do.. that screwed it up..

      most of the homeless probably stayed in their room .. got what every food they where being giving .. and lived up the luxury life .. sitting in the bed all day in perfect air condition and watching tv ,, while the drug addict and the mentally ill went and messed it up for the lazy people ..
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Stanley
    So glad this thread popped up on my feed. I certainly agree there's demand for houses/communities like this. And there are multiple compelling proof of concepts that show how far the tech has come to make it feasible. What you think the biggest barriers to it actually occurring in the U.S., at more scale, are? Local regulations seem like one hypothesis. If so, do you think certain states can/will loosen restrictions and successfully attract scores of new families? IMO Wyoming is doing a version this with cryptocurrency (Bitcoin namely), and is well positioned to be much more of a "financial influencer/leader" in the future.

    (Odahh, you may disagree with the above hypothesis ... if so, curious your take on what the barrier is then .... just education around the tech?).
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  • Profile picture of the author Kay King
    US states and counties are very slow to change zoning laws...selling commercial properties proved that to me years ago.


    Tiny houses are a popular topic in the US - but many states aren't able to get zoning for them as any more than a 'mobile home park'. I wasn't surprised as I saw something similar in 2005-2006 on the Gulf Coast.



    After hurricane Katrina, a friend's daughter was given a 2 bedroom 'katrina cottage' for free for 1 year and when the year was up she was able to BUY that cottage for $400! By the time she bought it - the govt had made it a permanent installation by installing it on a fundation on the lot she was renting for $100/month (the lot was not a mobile home park but a wooded 1/3 acre empty subdivision plot.)


    the home had living/kitchen/dining room, 2 BR, 2 Baths and a utility/storage room....covered front porch and small back deck. They were put into production and sold at lowe's, etc nationwide - for about 5 years or so. Sizes were from about 400 sq ft up to 1600 or so.


    Zoning ordinances were against them - but so were homeowners in many areas ... interesting excerpt below from



    Remember that Katrina Cottages thing? Whatever happened to that? | PlaceMakers


    (and a more recent article at https://www.treehugger.com/so-what-e...ttages-4857453 )



    Almost all of us associated with KC advocacy failed to appreciate the difficulty of changing the way business is usually done, whether we're talking infrastructure planning, zoning, housing finance or construction. As disaster recovery researchers note, the push in the wake of the trauma is to get things back to the way they were as quickly as possible, even if the way things were may have contributed to the community's ability to recover more quickly.



    Car-dependent, suburban-style neighborhoods with homes three or four times the size of KC designs were the normal most folks were anxious to return to. To many, smaller implied settling for less; and manufactured housing, no matter how sophisticated the design or the quality of materials, translated to "trailer park."


    Moving zoning towards form-based codes and housing towards Katrina Cottage neighborhoods "would have been tough in a lot of these communities even before the storm," says Joe Cloyd. "Immediately after Katrina, when leaders were constrained by all the stuff right in front of them, thinking about a Smart Code overlay or some other big policy change was just asking too much.



    "It's like what one of the local officials told me during the Forum discussions: 'It's hard to think about ways to drain the swamp when alligators are biting your ass.'"

    In the US I think anything that is 'out of the norm' meets resistance - and often from all sides. In Mexico, homes like the one in this thread are actually allowed.
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    • Profile picture of the author Matthew Stanley
      very interesting - thanks. I was only vaguely familiar with those Katrina cottages, but reading those articles makes me wish they'd gained more momentum. Found this passage telling:

      "And in the end, tiny houses work best as part of a community.
      What makes living in a 400 to 800-sq.-ft. home work is access to lots of choices beyond its walls: Close-by schools, work places, shopping, entertainment, transit. Which means infill lots. Which likely means higher land costs and neighbors suspicious of housing that doesn't look like theirs. Especially rental housing. And even more especially, manufactured housing."

      It's interesting - these developments *feel* to me like the future (not for all, of course, but for many more than now), and for me personally (perhaps bc I lived in a shoebox in NYC for so long), the "houses that don't look like mine" thing isn't / wouldn't be an issue. But, to your point, that's not true for everyone, and, bigger than that, scaling these things out perhaps requires legislators gifted in the rare craft of loosening regulations that've been entrenched for many decades.
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      • Profile picture of the author Odahh
        Originally Posted by Matthew Stanley View Post

        very interesting - thanks. I was only vaguely familiar with those Katrina cottages, but reading those articles makes me wish they'd gained more momentum. Found this passage telling:

        "And in the end, tiny houses work best as part of a community.
        What makes living in a 400 to 800-sq.-ft. home work is access to lots of choices beyond its walls: Close-by schools, work places, shopping, entertainment, transit. Which means infill lots. Which likely means higher land costs and neighbors suspicious of housing that doesn't look like theirs. Especially rental housing. And even more especially, manufactured housing."

        It's interesting - these developments *feel* to me like the future (not for all, of course, but for many more than now), and for me personally (perhaps bc I lived in a shoebox in NYC for so long), the "houses that don't look like mine" thing isn't / wouldn't be an issue. But, to your point, that's not true for everyone, and, bigger than that, scaling these things out perhaps requires legislators gifted in the rare craft of loosening regulations that've been entrenched for many decades.
        the passage you quoted how did the writer jump to don't look like theirs .. when the phrase should have been suspicious of new housing that risk lowering the value of their home..

        the codes the zoning and the lending practices of banks ..and the real estate taxes of cities counties or states ..are tied to houses either staying the same price or increasing in value over time .

        it a very effective collaboration between bankers politician and people who can afford to buy high priced homes to protect everyone's investment and interests
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Stanley
    when the phrase should have been suspicious of new housing that risk lowering the value of their home..
    A good point. Do you think there's a way to implement this idea across entire communities (perhaps lower income/lower home value communities) such that this is less of a risk? Or do you suspect it will be non-US places (like Mexico) - more willing to experiment - that make the most of this kind of innovation?
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    • Profile picture of the author Odahh
      Originally Posted by Matthew Stanley View Post

      A good point. Do you think there's a way to implement this idea across entire communities (perhaps lower income/lower home value communities) such that this is less of a risk? Or do you suspect it will be non-US places (like Mexico) - more willing to experiment - that make the most of this kind of innovation?
      well all the other innovation you can get in the USA starting with the basics of running water and electricity .. which you need to be hooked up to in most cities in the US if you are on a small lot ..

      in higher cost cities it could cost 20,000 or 30,000 or more to hook up a house to utilities and you could be looking at that or more for a .3 acre piece of land ..

      there is a reason many tiny house people build on trailers or convert school busses .. and find spot to rent where they can park the house .. and prebuilt tiny house can easily go for 200$ a square foot or more ..

      the 1500 .. 5000 or low cost tiny houses .. for the most part people build those themselves using a lot of reclaim and salvaged materials
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  • Profile picture of the author AlisonNorth80y
    As far as I understand, these houses will be built for low-income families. This is very interesting, but I don't think this method will be very popular.
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