While it’s a topic that many Americans might be reluctant to talk about, our country has a legitimate housing problem. Many Americans are forced to live in unsuitable housing because they can’t afford a home that’s more appropriate for their needs. And many more Americans are living in homes that they can barely afford.
In her recent testimony in front of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, Peggy Bailey, the Vice President for Housing Policy at the nonpartisan research and policy institute, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, explained:
“Unaffordable housing compels many people with low incomes to live in homes that are overcrowded or unsafe, and hundreds of thousands of people can’t afford a home at all; 580,000 people slept in shelters or on the streets on the night in January 2020 when HUD conducted its annual point-in-time homeless count.”
It’s clear that more affordable housing needs to be made available for Americans. But how can we streamline and improve construction processes so that we can reduce the cost of housing and make more affordable housing available in some of America’s poorest and most underserved communities?
Iowa State University and a consortium of other partners, including Iowa Central Community College, the Iowa Economic Development Authority, and other industry partners think that 3D printing could potentially be the answer.
These organizations recently announced a program to research if 3D printing houses can help mitigate the affordable housing crisis in the underserved community of Hamburg, Iowa. And, if 3D printing housing in Hamburg can make a difference, how can affordable, 3d printed houses be leveraged across America to fight the country’s affordable housing crisis?
The GovDesignHub sat down and spoke with Pete Evans, assistant professor of industrial design at Iowa State University, to learn about the goals Iowa State University has set out for this project, the design of the 3D-printed houses, and all the partners that are working to make this project possible.
GovDesignHub (GDH): What are Iowa State and its partners looking to accomplish with this project? And what will the end result be?
Pete Evans: The original challenge was around affordable housing; that remains our central focus. Our intent was to be able to objectively research this new and emerging technology, as well as understand the implications and opportunities that might positively impact the affordable housing market.
We have gotten to a point where there are some new technologies and automation solutions – [the construction industry] refers to it as “industrialized construction” – that might be able to impact affordable housing in some new and unique ways. One of the central technologies is a 3D construction printer working with a cement or concrete-like material, which is pretty new to the U.S. market.
Some of the claims we are trying to investigate and understand are, does this process actually reduce the cost? Does it reduce the labor requirements? Does it reduce the time of construction? Does this process improve material sustainability and the waste stream?
“The name of the project is 3D Affordable Innovative Technologies Housing (3DAIT), and it is intended to be a holistic ecosystem involving technologies, education, and workforce training components.” -Pete Evans
We’ve been at it for about a year and are mostly in the technology acquisition and initialization phase. We’re hoping to be able to provide several data points. One of them will be a house to be completed this coming year in Hamburg, Iowa, that we can monitor and test. A number of different prototypes will precede this house. Those will not be only 3D construction printing but will also involve other technologies and innovations we’re trying to integrate.
The name of the project is 3D Affordable Innovative Technologies Housing (3DAIT), and it is intended to be a holistic ecosystem involving technologies, education, and workforce training components. While we are learning to integrate these technologies into our process, collaborating with contractors, architects, designers, and planners, we are also constructing this educational component around the project at a local community college.
Those are a couple of the primary deliverables and pieces we’re wrapping around this project that we are working on for the Iowa Economic Development Authority.
GDH: Can you tell us about the partnerships surrounding this project?
Pete Evans: One is working with the state of Iowa. The Iowa Economic Development Authority makes this possible, and there’s a history behind some of this development work that they’ve been helping to establish in the state towards high-performance, affordable housing. So even without this more automated robotic or 3D construction printing, there are some prototype houses that we’re going to work from. This partnership is integral not only because they are empowering and supporting this work financially but they’re also providing a history of work and effort.
There have been a couple of associated partners with that work, including an architecture firm called BNIM. We are working with them as an architect on the project and trying to work within some of their prototypes, advance their designs, and work with them on details around this new material.
We are also collaborating with Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa. They are the educational and workforce component piece. We are working in partnership with them to provide a curriculum around these emerging technologies and processes.
“We’re trying to assess is the inception of integrating this technology into an actual construction and fabrication process. What are the opportunities, and what are the realities?” -Pete Evans
We have a machine here at Iowa State and a machine at Iowa Central in Fort Dodge where they have a history of offering a sustainability focused construction curriculum and industrialized manufacturing. The combination of these programs combine toward industrialized construction. This process allows them to create a new advanced construction degree – which will be exciting.
Bill McAnally, a consultant at Iowa Central Community College for about 50 years, is working with us on this project. He created the construction program, the advanced environment, and high-performance housing there and is a leader in the state with this kind of residential construction.
The state of Iowa also has contracted with developers through a program called Community Development Block Grants. That program has provided us with a partnership with a contractor consultant who is doing a development in Hamburg, Iowa. The state of Iowa also provided us with a collaboration with Brunow Contracting, who has provided us with a fantastic partnership.
Working with Hamburg also provided us with a connection to an organization called SWIPCO, a Southwest Iowa organization that helps connect these rural parts of the state to state and federal funding opportunities. We’re trying to strategically look at areas of the state that are rural and have been impacted by disaster. Hamburg, Iowa, had two monumental flooding events over the past ten years.
GDH: Why is 3D printing a good solution for the construction of affordable housing? Is this construction method faster or more economical than traditional construction?
Pete Evans: That question is one of the central pieces we’re trying to explore and objectively evaluate. Some claims say construction could go three times faster, with less than half of the labor required, and material waste decreased by 80 percent.
These are all industry claims that have been made on company websites. As you know, the internet isn’t always true.
We’re trying to assess is the inception of integrating this technology into an actual construction and fabrication process. What are the opportunities, and what are the realities? If we complete this project and discover that 3D-printed houses are not less expensive, we will be honest about those findings. Our hope and our belief are there’s a lot of momentum, and automation, robotics, and other digital technologies that will revolutionize the residential home market.
Suppose we can start to maintain a focus on the affordable housing market and try to understand thoughtfully and intentionally what the implications [of these technologies] are.; Not only should we be able to get to an objective answer, we should be able to scale that because we’re trying to create this ecosystem that also impacts the workforce.
GDH: Can you describe what these 3D-printed houses would be like? What would they be constructed out of, and how large would they be?
Pete Evans: So far, many model houses and even a handful of actual constructions have layered concrete with a bead of material. Unlike a traditional 3D printer, where it’s just layer upon layer, you’ll see horizontal line striations where you’ll notice about three-quarters of an inch layer of this cement, just material stacked on top of each other.
“All of these types of traditional technologies could be replaced by an automated construction process that will provide a similar aesthetic appearance, but those pieces can still be modified.” -Pete Evans
The material looks like it’s had a rake pattern across it horizontally, so it’s a pretty clear wall or horizontal look on the wall surface. This material is used primarily today on the vertical enclosure, vertical walls, exterior walls of the building, and sometimes the interior.
But there’s a variety of opportunities that have shown that you could expose this design on the interior in some, all, or no locations and even have a pretty typical interior finish. You would not know that this house was any different than any other house constructed in the past 50 years. So it’s more or less on the exterior where you’ll see some of this manifest or be a little clearer. We are hoping this resilient material doesn’t need to have additional finishing.
In traditional construction, we have a wood stud wall, sheathing, cladding, and other important considerations like vapor barriers and insulation. All of these types of traditional technologies could be replaced by an automated construction process that will provide a similar aesthetic appearance, but those pieces can still be modified.
One important note is we’re at the very beginning of this project. There are already robotic solutions — and even manual solutions combined with robotic solutions — that can change the appearance of the outside by finishing the home, smoothing it, constructing a pattern either robotic or manually, so there are a lot of opportunities to make this look like a traditional home or not. You can imagine, for instance, a basket weave, there are basket weave patterns with this material that will appear, and I think these kinds of patterns within the material are also fascinating.
One of the things that one solution provided was a painted surface. When you step back and you’re at the street, it almost doesn’t have an appearance that might be different than a standard wood-clad house with vinyl, metal, or cement board siding.
To learn more about this project, click HERE. To explore how Auburn University is helping the FAA and Army solve additive manufacturing material variation challenges, click HERE.
