Robo Builders: Fabbed Housing

They can't be any worse than the shop built pre-manufactured homes currently being pumped out here in the US. As I noticed in another recent post, we Americans have no sense of building for the future. 20 years is too far in the future for us to be worried about. 3 years is too long to keep a new car. Spend tomorrows money today, tomorrow will take care of itself. Take home $2 on your check instead of $5 in health insurance or pension.

Ugly americans we're not. Ignorant we are. Deming et al that raised the Japanese economy out of the dust, now we're emulating that wonderful Japanese economy, that has tanked worse than ours.

I guess my age is showing.

RichH

Show me where ignorance doesn't reign.

Winston Churchill said something like, "We shape our buildings, thereafter they shape us." And you can see how much we're drawn to the buildings of antiquity, or even of our own Arts and Crafts/Craftsman/Mission Style past. We love Praque not because its old (as some suppose) but because it is beautiful and livable.

But even the stylish Italians build ugly boxes these days. In a world where I.M.Pei is considered a genius, where can you find the classics of tomorrow?

But this is about technology and technique. If I can build a timber-framed (maybe with extruded recycled plastic/metal composite "timbers?") Mission/Lodge Style house on my property for less using robots, I'm pretty jazzed.

Anybody out there want to pioneer the architectural use of extruded pegged "timber" structures? There's already a growing and profitable niche in real timbers. I can't help thinking that the structural advantages of this building method could find gree customers...

Yes I totally agree and this is through for the hole of North America. The way we build here is absolutely insane. Any thing older the 50 years is falling apart and has to be replaced. This is putting an unbelievable amount of pressure on our environment. From the resourses to the landfill of the demolished buildings and nothing gets recycled.

Then there is the energy put into the demolishing and the new construction and the main factor is our forest is declining in a global weather changing speed. Yes Global then the big forest on this little planet declined by more the two thirds since the late 40ths and this is were a big part of our climate change is coming from.

So why we are not building structures that is more sustainable. Europe builds for an average of 200 years.

I call this here the Pioneer Spirit; the pioneers came to this part of the world in search for a new and better way of life for them self. But because of the abandons of space available forgot the environment complete. They had a horse and a wagon, when the snow started flying they build a shack, in spring they keep on running. So that's why there is no connection to a piece of land or a building that was owned for centuries by the same family.

Now the building is done by robots, that means the people who build so far have to move somewhere else to make a living and so on and so on.

Does this make sense? I think only to the pocket book of a few.

Miraculix

This is a great idea! as United Statesians we always come up with most of the best things first. I would bet that this get copied and improved upon by the Japanese in large scale if successful. Although it has the potential to making housing less expensive, it could also put hundreds of thousands of other United Statesians out of work, but then again, that has been said so many times before, and we managed to keep making this a great country...

and who is doing the plumbing and the wirering? ? ?

Miraculix

Well, now...that's union, and technology can't touch that.