I'm not really sure how 3d printing would solve large-scale housing issues, you can't 3d print multistory buildings, so about the only use for the tech is single family suburban or rural homes, and most of the world's population is now urbanized. Cheap cement-based multi-storey prefab units have existed for decades as well, the former communist bloc built endless rows of them, I assume the reason they aren't still springing up everywhere is land cost and urban planning issues. I don't believe affordable housing is the real problem, it's affordable living that's killing us. Housing is just the most obvious symptom of that.
@@Standbackforscience excellent perspective, counterpoints and nuance - thank you 🙏 I still wonder if population displacement (climate refugees) or climate adaptation might necessitate some big (social?) housing of this sort in some countries - perhaps aided by 3D to speed things up… Agree with you about cost of living being beyond housing - but in the UK at least housing is a huge % of that living cost partly because of constrained supply. Anyway I could be wrong - but will be fascinating to see if either this - or AI enabled materials science does unlock some helpful disruption in any way.
@@futureflect Oh, 3d printed homes themselves are really interesting and definitely have their use, and I guess in countries that lack builders or industrialized manufacturing, they're easy to setup, especially if there's a ready supply of building materials. Maybe in areas experiencing unnaturally severe fires or flooding they could offer safer alternatives to current building technique. But the greater western housing crisis, I think that's far bigger than anything technology can fix, lord help us.
I'm not really sure how 3d printing would solve large-scale housing issues, you can't 3d print multistory buildings, so about the only use for the tech is single family suburban or rural homes, and most of the world's population is now urbanized. Cheap cement-based multi-storey prefab units have existed for decades as well, the former communist bloc built endless rows of them, I assume the reason they aren't still springing up everywhere is land cost and urban planning issues. I don't believe affordable housing is the real problem, it's affordable living that's killing us. Housing is just the most obvious symptom of that.
@@Standbackforscience excellent perspective, counterpoints and nuance - thank you 🙏 I still wonder if population displacement (climate refugees) or climate adaptation might necessitate some big (social?) housing of this sort in some countries - perhaps aided by 3D to speed things up… Agree with you about cost of living being beyond housing - but in the UK at least housing is a huge % of that living cost partly because of constrained supply. Anyway I could be wrong - but will be fascinating to see if either this - or AI enabled materials science does unlock some helpful disruption in any way.
@@futureflect Oh, 3d printed homes themselves are really interesting and definitely have their use, and I guess in countries that lack builders or industrialized manufacturing, they're easy to setup, especially if there's a ready supply of building materials. Maybe in areas experiencing unnaturally severe fires or flooding they could offer safer alternatives to current building technique.
But the greater western housing crisis, I think that's far bigger than anything technology can fix, lord help us.