On the topic of 3d printed houses: In my home country of soviet canukistan, concrete walls with lots of little gaps would be destroyed by freeze-melt cycles.
Another major issue with concrete in climates like mine is that the concrete will shrink and expand with weather -- going from +40 to -40 and back a bunch of times has a real chance of just cracking because there's nowhere else for the material to go but apart.
I've seen videos talking about how strong concrete is, and one video even showed someone trying to break the concrete wall with a sledgehammer. Thing is, the same strength becomes a weakness when it's brittle strength. Same reason we temper metal.
Someone who has been to Canada might go "But I've seen concrete used in building!" and you'd be right -- but that's because of building techniques that aren't available when 3d printing, such as pre-stressed concrete, bubble entrainment, or specially designed spots that are designed to break to protect the rest of the structure.
Another major issue with concrete in climates like mine is that the concrete will shrink and expand with weather -- going from +40 to -40 and back a bunch of times has a real chance of just cracking because there's nowhere else for the material to go but apart.
I've seen videos talking about how strong concrete is, and one video even showed someone trying to break the concrete wall with a sledgehammer. Thing is, the same strength becomes a weakness when it's brittle strength. Same reason we temper metal.
Someone who has been to Canada might go "But I've seen concrete used in building!" and you'd be right -- but that's because of building techniques that aren't available when 3d printing, such as pre-stressed concrete, bubble entrainment, or specially designed spots that are designed to break to protect the rest of the structure.
@sj_zero I'm from Texas, so you know, I heard of "ice" in a story once. But would it still crack if the ice has somewhere to expand to? I would imagine the water would seep in and then come right back out when it expands to become ice, that the only problem would be something like a pipe where it's sealed in.
You're generally correct which is why one technique for making cement last longer in winter conditions is to add air bubbles to the mixture which gives the ice somewhere to go, but another problem is that the Ice can freeze from the outside in, so it creates its own pipe. The ice covering the thing doesn't want to go anywhere so the water turns to ice in the cracks of the cement, and boom! Like a beer left in the freezer.
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@sj_zero
Personally, I think the biggest problem with all of this new tech stuff is that everyone looks at only one solution. The truth is, it's going to be a combination of everything. There will be some things that will be 3D printed and plastic concrete or otherwise. And then there will be other things that will be molded or a 3D printed mold made and then concrete poured in.
Never mind the incorporation of wood or other materials.