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Work begins on the world's first 3D-printed house
3D-printed house … The future of volume house-building, or a novelty technology for temporary pavilions? (The Guardian; Photograph: Peter Dejong/ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Zero waste, lower transport costs and recyclable materials – is 3D-printing the future of housebuilding? Dutch architects are putting the process to the test for the first time in Amsterdam
— theguardian.com
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46 Comments
Anyone want to live in a Bioplastic house? And what about all the jobs lost?
How about the economy of manufacturing? Is this how buildindustry would relate to environment! ....
Zero waste, lower transport costs and recyclable materials
Wow, that is 0% true.
3D printing is the same as it was when i did it 10 years ago... difficult, poor results, not environmentally friendly at all.
More interesting is robotically built structures.
Miles,
I agree living in this house would be terrible, the race to who can 3dprint first is as futile as who can build the tallest.
However, I disagree that digital fabrication is only useful for taking away jobs and creating unintelligent plastic geometry.
In this VIDEO you can see the digital fabrication used in the creation of BAKOKO's Onjuku Surf Shack. The use of this system not only created jobs in itself, but allowed the architects greater control over the construction, provided the opportunity for a Daiku (Japanese Master Carpenter) to do detailing with traditional Japanese wood working tools, while providing a wood frame structure that fit together without the use of nails and screws.
The master builder was known as tōryō (daiku is just a carpenter). Both are going the way of the dodo thanks to digital technology. Automation does create jobs, but at the cost of the workers who formerly did that work. Since much of that work is now done by machine, fewer workers are required. Thus there is a net loss in the number of jobs. In this case the jobs belonged to highly skilled tradesmen who learned their skills through 10 year apprenticeships.
Also, that house was assembled by hand. The structural timber was fabricated by machine, as was the siding and various other components like windows and doors, tile, etc. So calling it "digitally fabricated" is misleading at best.
One of the most intriguing things about Japan is their commitment to keeping traditional craft alive through various means including the complete rebuilding of the national shrine at Ise every 20 years, recognition of working potters, basket weavers and traditional craftsmen as national treasures, etc.
Assemblage by hand does not negate digital fabrication. The architect generated tooling paths and the frame assemblage directly from a digital model. One unfamiliar with digital fabrication might have been fooled by the lack of unintelligent geometry images.
This projects provides an example of a traditional craft being economically feasible through the use of digital fabrication on a project, I thought you would appreciate that Miles?
You seem to be extremely concerned about job loss. What about the magazines and mailman you have taken jobs from by using this forum to read and correspond about architecture? Are you familiar with the Luddite Fallacy Miles?
CNC is not exactly new technology, and the application you cite is at least 20 years old.
I spent three years apprenticing with a Japanse Master builder. He was one of the last of a dying breed. I am very concerned about jobs. People's lives and livelihoods depend on them. Real unemployment in the US is over 20%. In some places it is much worse.
One unfamiliar with digital fabrication might have been fooled by the lack of unintelligent geometry images.
^ Utterly incomprehensible nonsense. LOL
Do you treat everyone who disagrees with you as a personal enemy, or is there some cultural / language problem here?
I'm the future we will all be replaced by machines. There will be a small class of operators and programmers and designers, but the majority of jobs will be automated. This is not a Luddite fallacy it's a real problem. How can we possibly maintain an economy where only 1% of the people have a relevant skill set. We can't. It's just not looking good. This ain't sci fi. Its an absolute certainty that machines will replace most of us. The trend has steadily been happening since the beginning of civilization. In some cases it's been good like with the invention of the cotton gin, but overall, we are in for a rude awakening. The exponential advancement of technology will correlate to an exponential degree of vocational irrelevance. If you think that we can operate an economy based on new technological industries and new technological vices like Facebook you are mistaken. This is perhaps one of the most threatening issues facing society. One that is never talked about in the media. Robots don't need insurance, don't take sick days and mental health days. They don't have rights. They can work 24-7. Corporations will not pass that up. Never in a billion years. We are looking at the beginning of the end of civilization as we know it. If you think that our rights and liberties can be maintained without the need for our labor you have a short sighted view of history and an overly optimistic trust in the system.
Machines don't get sick or collect benefits or go on strike. They are worked to death and easily replaced with no questions asked. What's not to like? You can get a job maintaining the machines until they make machines to do that.
Did you guys get to watch sneak previews of Transcendence with Johnny Depp or are you bigger Isaac Asimov fans?
Miles,
I think you found "unintelligent geometry images" incomprehensible, which I understand. I meant images of "blob architecture," but didn't want my statement to be associated with all architecture that is non-orthogonal, so I choose unintelligent geometry instead.
I'm sorry you felt attacked, I was trying to maintain some civility in the conversation.
"This projects provides an example of a traditional craft being economically feasible through the use of digital fabrication on a project, I thought you would appreciate that Miles?"
jla-x,
The Luddite Fallacy fails to acknowledge the increase in productivity associated with advances in technology and subsequent reduction in price of product.
Well prices are gonna have to eventually reduce to free because no one will have any money if they can't work. The other fallacy is the Progress Fallacy. The idea that technology and progress are one in the same thing and that technology will liberate us. It won't. Technology like all other tools will be used to exploit and control by the predators of society. advancements in ballistics just means more dead motherfuckers.
A Luddite is one who longs for the past. I'm just being a realist.
Just remember Jesus was a carpenter not a 3D printer.
Lud·dite (ˈlədˌīt) noun
1. a member of any of the bands of English workers who destroyed machinery, esp. in cotton and woolen mills, that they believed was threatening their jobs (1811–16).
2. a person opposed to increased industrialization or new technology. "a small-minded Luddite resisting progress"
Resisting progress. Lol.
Anyone who equates progress to technological advancement and industrialization is a moron. Not calling you one. Just saying. That's a very ethnocentric way of viewing the world. A way for industrialized empires run by greedy takers to legitimize their plunder. Progress is not about replacing a spear with a scud missile it's about replacing the hatred in our hearts and the smallness of our minds with enlightenment and love so that we need neither.
Now this is not to say that technology bad and caveman good. Not at all. Just saying that technology can be used for good but only in the hands of good people. We seem to have a shortage of them in the world which leads me to believe that technology will be used for more of the same. Greed and destruction.
Digital fabrication is not a traditional craft. If you understood the process of making a traditional Japanese timber-frame structure you would begin to realize just how much is lost.
To begin with, wood is not a homogenous material. It has grain, texture, structural and appearance defects, etc. A machine does not know or care about those qualities, it does not orient the material in a way to maximize or minimize them. Traditionally, the timber structure in Japanese construction was exposed. But not with this system, where those qualities (and other considerations) are disregarded.
The Luddite Fallacy fails to acknowledge the increase in productivity associated with advances in technology and subsequent reduction in price of product.
Funny, all this mass production and both global unemployment and the cost of everything keeps going up.
It sounds like you both have issues with humanity, not technology.
Someone should ask the millions... billions.... of animals that have/are/will live in brutal factory farms about technology. No doubt they would have a different opinion. But since suffering is determined by your connection to human empathy....
Technology, like all design, can be critiqued by its effect on society. It is not good and bad in itself, but in how it is used. If that were to serve all people, and not at the expense of others, one could argue that would be good.
Utilitarian philosophers have called this the hedonistic calculus. The calculus just depends on who you are including in the variable. Instead we spend all of our time Facebook sending funny pictures of Le Corbusier instead of looking at what he said.
So, in summation, technology isn't good or bad, but Facebook is definitely bad.
Either way, if the sea levels rise, the earth plundered, and warring nations nuke each other, the half-mutant human-chicken-shrimp creatures will have a different view of technology than we do today.
Yes. Exactly. More specifically the small group controlling humanity. Even more specifically the system that empowers that small group. Technology is technology. For every jonas Salk and Tesla we get a thousand Pfizers and BPs.
Well said dark man.
jla-x,
I agree the world could always use more love, but technological progression does not directly correlate to this.
Miles,
You are a correct, machines do not understand the qualities of wood you described. At this juncture in time, It is still up to the designer to coordinate the material input. Digital fabrication simply increases the precision, efficiency, and speed of the tooling of the material.
I think you mistook my "price" to mean monetary; labor cost would have been a better word choice on my part to dispel any confusion.
Darkman,
"It [technology] is not good and bad in itself, but in how it is used." This nicely sums up this conversation on whether digital fabrication should be damned or not.
Digital fabrication may be used for good or bad design, it is not the machine that decides, but the designers behind it.
Are you saying that lower labor costs are better?
As far as technology goes, there is good evidence demonstrating that it makes people stupider rather than smarter, like the generation of social inept and functionally illiterate children who are nonetheless expert video game players.
Miles,
Do you prefer Xbox One or PS4?
Lower labor costs allow for an increase in production. Currently this excess production capacity has resulted in mass production, or an increase in the quantity and not quality of product. However, digital fabrication has the potential to turn this excess in production into an increase in quality instead of quantity of product.
As Darkman summed up nicely, technology can be used for good or bad, people can use it to become more intelligent or become "stupider" as you put it.
If smarter is a word, stupider should be.
Lower labor costs allow for an increase in production.
Lower labor costs allow for an increase in profit. Production volume is geared to the market and often restricted to support or increase price (and profit).
As fewer people are employed (automation) or more people earn less (declining labor costs) there is less disposable income for personal consumption and less demand for products. For example, the historical trend in US car sales is down.
Miles,
I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you don't solely draft by hand. I would guess that you use some sort of CAD program. And yes, I agree that hand drafting is a craft, and it is beginning to be lost, but that's a slightly different argument.
If my hypothesis is correct, then you have employed some form of automation into your practice (and hell you sure use the internet often). I'm sure you could [correctly] argue that CAD, since it is a form of automation, eliminated many people's jobs in the last 20 or so years.
I'm all for benevolent dictators, but who/what is the entity that says this technology is evil or that technology is good. It would be a much more productive conversation to talk about how we safeguard craft (and perhaps morality) while still taking advantage of technology. Yes, the trajectory of the younger generations is terrifying, but we shouldn't just sit around and whine about the good ole days.
Personally, I feel like the craft of parenting is mostly to blame. They are the lazy ones who stick these devices in their children's hands or plop them in front of an xbox. When did our values change so that it was acceptable to do this to our children?
@jla-x really like this
"Progress is not about replacing a spear with a scud missile it's about replacing the hatred in our hearts and the smallness of our minds with enlightenment and love so that we need neither".
Excellent, Nam.
Montauk, I draft by hand. Sometimes I model and render with CAD, but it's almost exclusively for furniture. Presentations are perspective by hand. Old school.
I've built a bunch of things from other architect's CAD drawings and I can state with authority that they almost universally suck. It seems that so much goes into the process of operating the technology (not)necessary to produce drawings that the content suffers.
You nailed it with value systems, they're all wrong and we're paying the price. But you ain't seen nothing yet. My wife teaches pottery and she's more and more frustrated with teenage kids who have lots of behavioral problems and no manual skills. Doesn't bode well for the future.
Stanislaw Lem wrote a lot about technology, that it was notoriously unreliable and had unexpected consequences.
As for tech, why aren't we putting everything into PV? Because sunlight is free.
Montauk,
" It would be a much more productive conversation to talk about how we safeguard craft while still taking advantage of technology." - I agree.
Miles chart on domestic cars sales brings up an interesting dilemma facing the use of craft and technology in our current culture. While the graph does show a decrease in domestic car sales, it does not take into account factors such as ZipCar, increases in public transit, Web services such as TaskRabbit, and increases in urban living. I'll assume that most here would agree that a decrease in automobile reliance through the aforementioned amenities improves the quality of life.
The issue seems to be in our culture's inability to measure quality (craft), only quantity.
To bring the conversation back to the original discussion, digital fabrication has the potential to increase craft because it can operate outside of a mass industrial process, allowing for more tailored design with less labor cost.
^ that I kinda agree with but disagree that it will reduce cost. One benefit would be that it could help to decentralize production. For example, in another 20 years or so its feasible that one would simply walk into a store, purchase an iphone10 and it can be printed on site. That would reduce waste, energy for shipping, outsourcing etc. it can also empower small cottage industries. I would think a city full of many micro factories would be a lot better than relying upon centralized production. A small entrepreneur could possibly invent a product and manufacture it in his basement. That's a good thing. So while 3-d printing will likely hurt the working class, it could possibly empower/expand the entrepreneur/ownership class. Maybe.
So yes there are some positive aspects of digital fabrication IMO, but cost is a sticky issue. Low production cost will probably just mean more profit as miles said. Cost may be affected by increased competition created through the increased access to means of production. Not sure though...
As far as architecture goes....I don't think a machine can replicate certain things. There will always be a desire for hand made objects. Despite photoshop we still have painters. Something about hand made craft that just feels better. Maybe it's the imperfections that give character and life to the object.
Then there is also the sense of triumph of knowing "people built that." Some structures give us a pride in human achievement. For instance when I look at the early 20th century skyscrapers I know that the architect was responsible, but also understand that everyday people made it happen. That gives a feeling that the city was built by the people. It contributes to a historical narrative. Everytime i passed the Empire State Building i knew that my grandfather helped make it happen. His labor is still embodied in it. His Kinetic energy from a lifetime ago is still wound up in those bolts. That's a nice thought. If a building is fabricated by some spider looking robot I don't think buildings will mean the same thing to us anymore.
The old dogs who can't learn new tricks will always be bitter about the young who do. Or maybe its just those who lack innovation and ability to learn prefer to keep technology stuck back in time.
If technology could free us from worrying about basic needs such as food and shelter, and focus the economy on luxuries, like art entertainment, and quality goods, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?
The native americans probably had a better philosophy of life: brutal, but more connected to the earth and nature; more sustainable. And yet they were steamrolled by the technology of an even more brutish culture. Thus, the story of technology.
digital fabrication has the potential to increase craft because it can operate outside of a mass industrial process
Digital fabrication is an industrial process. The quantity produced is irrelevant.
craft n. 1. Art or skill; dexterity in particular manual employment; hence, the occupation or employment itself; manual art; a trade. 2. Those engaged in any trade, taken collectively; a guild; as, the craft of ironmongers.
The next question: is a computer programmer a craftsman?
yes.
craftsman or craftswoman or craftstransgenderperson or craftshuman or craftsquestioningimjustnotreadytomakethatdecisiondontrytolabelme!!
but the short answer is yes.
"is 3D-printing the future of housebuilding? No. I love the utopian idea of being able to spit out the parts one needs at a construction . What happens to the plastic part when it cracks? Does the 3-d printer's operating system need to get upgraded? Does this mean our houses become more plastic? What does that mean for re-cycling and the fact that there's already a Texas state size plastic dump floating in the Pacific ocean? Things are a little more connected than being able to print out your very own zooty plastic parts.
"digital fabrication has the potential to increase craft because it can operate outside of a mass industrial process,"
Digital fabrication is not a craft. It can have an algorythem to get the lines squigly but nobody is fooled. As for actual fabrication, bring it on, that's all the world needs, millions of plastic gadget makers. Then it will mold the plastic resin to give a tooled effect, but we all know how that goes. It will have it's place, but it is by definition, not a craft.
"The old dogs who can't learn new tricks will always be bitter about the young who do."
Old dogs sometimes know the difference between a trick and an actual function.
Woof.
craft (kraft/)
noun: an activity involving skill in making things by hand. "the craft of bookbinding"
verb: exercise skill in making (something). "he crafted the chair lovingly"
The digital fabrication example I provided above does not involve "squigly" geometry, plastic, or a mass industrial process. There is craft that goes into custom machine parts as well as computer programming, not to mention the craft of designing.
Persons familiar with routing as a form of digital fabrication know there are well crafted and not so well crafted pieces that can be fabricated. Persons familiar with coding know there are well crafted lines of code and ones that throw null reference exceptions. Digital fabrication does not determine the level of craft, the designer still does. Digital fabrication provides designers with another means of designing.
3d printing will be something someday. it'll catch on. however, i'm not sure building an entire building with a big printer is the right direction for this particular technology to take.
let's figure out how to get my piece of shit HP desktop printer to feed a page properly first....
insanity /in-ˈsa-nə-tē/
noun: the act of defining "craft" over and over again and expecting a different result
insanity /in-ˈsa-nə-tē/
noun: the act of inaccurately defining "craft" over and over again and expecting a different result
If it's inaccurate, then you should only expect a different result.
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