Wasp-inspired setup 3D-prints complete homes for $1,000
The Crane WASP, also known as "the infinity 3D printer," uses locally sourced clay, mud or cement to 3D-print affordable homes. It can even use agricultural waste as aggregate. The system is now being used to build much-needed housing in Colombia.
180 grand for the printer? Holy cack that's peanuts. Just think what we could do if we spent the money on this sort of thing instead of giving it to politicians.
No reinforcement? What are the upper floors made of?
These are gadget huts. It's made of techno-hopium material.
They'll want money to do this in some poor rural area in a place where they can hardly name the native language. They think this will help poor people, but ignore the part where humans have always built shelters. If they fail to transfer the technology and know-how, then this technology is, over time, totally useless. And they will fail because such tech is usually patented and protected by IP laws.
If they try to sell this in the richer parts of the World, all they will do is make the environment and climate worse by promoting more suburban sprawl.
Yep. The cheaper and easier solution to extreme housing issues is a few pallets of bricks and some mortar. This company is on a marketing campaign to try to get people in rich countries to get excited about buzzwords so they can get funding.
The ones in Texas are built of a "high performance polymer concrete", so probably including cement and contributing to climate change. They appear to be single storey as well.
If you read the article you'll see they're more domes than homes
Well, quite. They don't appear to have windows or doors either (doorways, yes, but not doors), and they have holes in the roof. Yet the article mentions "homes" about a million times.
It's almost like somebody who didn't have any knowledge of construction had the idea of 3D printing buildings. Probably in the shower.
I notice that they fill the walls with natural fibers by hand (see the photo) - so they must pause the printers at regular intervals and get a ladder to get up to the top parts. So even what we see isn't entirely 3D printed.