I don’t usually reply to articles I’m researching but I just have to add my two cents to this one and will most probably never make a reply again. Anyway, I love the idea of extruding a building directly from CAD plans. In fact, that is how I came to research it in the first place after seeing it on television.

Imagine the structures we could build! Two foot thick walls with built in sound deadening, multiple levels on multiple floors, actually fusing a cube and a sphere… that one hasn’t changed much since Hagia Sophia, built in architectural features and ornamentation that few U.S. Citizens see unless they visit a museum, and let us not forget all the preplanning the architect does before the project actually starts, total insulative qualities for heating and cooling, earthquake and hurricane resistance, stress tests, family growth…that list can go on for a very long time but is not conductive to the practicality of extruded homes. Think of it as quiet literally shaping clay. If you can think it, you can build it. I agree the structure will not be very appealing at least until it is finished. The same robot that extruded the building could change its tool head and add siding or tile, polish the construction smooth, maybe even carve/machine all the surfaces completely!
I wouldn’t worry too much about laborers either. Rough and finish persons will become specialists and charge ten times more for their services.
I too believe the adobe comment was for P.R. but the concept is a very good one… in the correct climate of course. Was going to build a small shop for myself a few years back and thought I would try a straw/adobe technique I heard about but wasn’t sure on some of the aspects, so I experimented. The whole structure was held up by framing just like a modern house but the walls were adobe spread thickly on 4 bales of hay covered by chicken wire that were stacked between the framing studs. The bottom bales were sitting on plastic that was under the wire and went to the top bales. On top of that was a sheet of tin with a large overhang on all four sides. The whole thing was about 4 feet tall anchored on a concrete block. No weight rested on the adobe/straw walls. It was a disaster! In one month half of the two bales on the bottom were rotted away. So no, I don’t recommend adobe for all climates.
My sister visited Prague and a few other places in Europe not long ago and after her return she made a comment about U.S. housing in general. Basically we live in flimsy houses compared to Europe even if you live in a modern brick home (at least in the U.S.); brick is used more like siding on a framed house now. I too get that flimsy feeling when I visit someone in a new house but then my home was constructed in the 1930s which was before electricity was available in the area, so maybe people had more time for craftsmanship then and it has nothing to do with minimal modern materials in new constructions and is strictly construction techniques. That is something that programming can work out too. Another reason to use extrusion robots is that they do not argue with you. They do what you tell them and nothing else. I have noticed multiple times someone actually constructing a project say “we can’t do it that way” or “that’ll cost you more” and you always end up with something unsatisfying. Also, after a while the process will become very cheep. Maybe the answer to that adobe problem is to add recycled plastic to the mixture and heat it up as it works.
Extruding parts of a construction has been around for a very long time. The first I can think of is concrete structures like the ugly things that were made during and after World War II but those were more a poured structure. Recently (in history) is slip forming techniques like suspension bridge towers and they are looking a lot better but I believe a lot of people will remember an old concept cartoon with a machine extruding a highway overpass.
This however is what I really would like to see, modify the nozzle end of the extruder to sinter pulverized rock into a bricklike substance and send the thing to our Moon and Mars. I believe this can be achieved be adding a microwave furnace to the nozzle end and a lot of the work has already been done… http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/HumanExplore/Exploration/EXLibrary/DOCS/EIC049.HTML.
Even if it cannot sinter a brick it should still be able to pick one up and “glue” it in place.
So, in all I approve the development of extruded buildings.
- Earl H. Dodd 2-12-2006 4:56 am





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