Friday, September 27, 2024 
Friday, September 27, 2024
March 8, 2020
As the world’s population continues to grow, we are faced with the need for faster development and rapid construction on a massive scale.
The building design and construction process is one that has relatively stayed the same for hundreds if not thousands of years. An architect or designer would create a vision for a structure, a civil engineer would create all the necessary supports and functions, and a crew of builders would ultimately construct the house. It seems simple, but one thing that the “tried and tested process” doesn’t have on its hands is time.
When time and efficiency become the driving constraint for construction, like what is being seen in areas experiencing rapid growth, the only current solution is manufactured housing, lacking in originality and architectural beauty. There is a place for the double-wide and single-wide concept of manufactured homes, but adapting to the mass population has never been the intended use.
Rather than this form of housing manufacturing, the construction building design and construction industry will shift to more of a wide-scale mass-production industry. One still focused on architectural beauty and originality but driven by manufacturability and speed.
Much like how 3D printing and other additive techniques are infiltrating the mechanical engineer’s world, so too is relatively rapid prototyping infiltrating the construction industry. There’s any number of ways one can create a structure using scalable components. Builders can utilize large-scale concrete or brick house 3D printing machines, although their practicality for widespread use is still lacking.
What the world will start to see more of is a system of construction building blocks, a standard if you will, for fully custom housing, all utilizing similar pieces.
Keep reading on InterestingEngineering.com
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