Are 3D printed homes the way of the future?

Question

This is a long read here but incredibly insightful. I'm no expert in new construction so would love to hear your thoughts!

https://www.construction-physics.com/p/what-makes-housing-so-expensive

I see clickbait headlines about how new ways of building homes (whether that be a 3D printed home or other strategy) will completely disrupt the real estate industry and crash home prices.

I think we are far away from that. That article above has some interesting graphs of the share of each stage of home building that affects the total cost. The part a 3D printer can do is a small sliver of that.

While it could reduce a portion of costs if the technology improves and becomes more affordable, I think we are a long way away from adoption of it that would result in any impactful industry wide pricing changes.

Do you think 3D printed homes are the way of the future?

Chris Seveney · Answer

I love technology and as a civil engineer and have built a lot of homes, I do not see this as being the way of the future completely. I think there will be opportunities to expedite home building such as working on the exterior of a home etc (wall framing, brick/stone/painting etc). but there is still a lot of coordination that has to go on from different trades (within walls etc), that I believe can assist but it is not going to "transform" this process, in the future it will keep getting better but in my lifetime I do not see 3d printed homes and elons robots building homes just yet.

Are 3D printed homes the way of the future?

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