So 3D printers and houses ...

[Hellebore]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdbJP...layer_embedded

= win.

Hellebore

[EmperorNorton]

That sounds fantastic.
I've had my perception of the world shaken a bit by this.

[theunwantedbeing]

The only real downside to this sort of thing is the sheer number of people you put out of a job.

[de Selby]

The automatic wall-building machine is cool but I still can't quite believe the future isn't in prefabrication. It seems ludicrous that in the 21st century we do so much of construction outside. We don't build anything else outside, if we want to do it efficiently we do it in a factory.

This seems to be a plan to take the factory to the construction site, which is interesting but seems like a long-term goal. The NASA applications actually seem ideal, as that's a special case where 'making things here and transporting them there' is specifically what we want to avoid.

[Hellebore]

I'm pretty sure the graphs he shows at the end show that this is cheaper than prefab, uses less energy, less emissions etc. How good his figures are I don't know.

Hellebore

[Erazmus_M_Wattle]

I'd like to think that it's a technology that could drastically revolutionise our world, in a good way. But I'm concerned that it's a technology that could be suppressed by those who would stand to lose. Specifically all those involved in the corruption he mentioned.

As an example in Edinburgh the authorities were building a tram system. Corruption caused the project to go many times over budget. A problem that also caused the Scottish Parliament building to go grossly over budget.

I'm pretty sure the new Wembley stadium and most recently the Olympic village went massively over budget as well.

I'd love to see contour crafting take off because someday I'd like to be able to design my own house and have it built that way.

[de Selby]

I'm pretty sure the graphs he shows at the end show that this is cheaper than prefab, uses less energy, less emissions etc. How good his figures are I don't know.

Hellebore

Aye, that's the bit I can't quite believe. Very happy to be proved wrong though, once they have it all working.

One thing that interested me was he mentioned that the printed walls were substantially stronger than conventional concrete walls, which I can believe because of their 'wavy' internal structure (looks a lot like corrugated cardboard). That could be a decisive advantage, depending how it compares to other types of walls.