Have you ever wanted to live in a 3D printed home?

With advances in engineering and technology this method of home building is quickly becoming more efficient and popular. Four years ago the first permitted 3D printed home was unveiled to the world. In the time since there have been technological and aesthetical improvements in the industry.

The main benefit to this is the time that it takes to have your home built. With 3D printing the homes walls can be printed in hours and is said to be approximately “3x faster than traditional construction methods” by 3D printed home building SQ4D (SQ4D). Upon visiting their website they give out various information such as faster build times, cheaper production costs, amount of laborers required for printing, recent projects, 3D printed features, and short but informative video on the process of 3D printing a home.

SQ4D printing video shows a total of 13 steps for their printing process. They start by prepping the building site and install the underground plumbing lines; then set up the 3D printer. Next they excavate for the building footings and then pour the footers. Once the footers are poured they use the 3D printer to print the foundation walls. Installing a vapor barrier and conduit is the next step; this ensures moisture is kept from entering the foundation. Once that is completed they print the foundation floor followed by printing the exterior and interior walls of the home. While the concrete is still wet they cut out the spaces for electrical boxes, attach those electrical boxes, then continue printing the walls over them. Next they frame in all the doors and windows then continue printing the walls over top of the frames. This completes the wall printing and the 3D printing process. Roofing for the home will be done by more traditional building methods.

I think that 3D printing homes could be the most sustainable, efficient,  and eco-friendly way to build a home. Would you live in a home constructed this way?

If you have ever had to use the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) you know how extensive and difficult to read the text can be. I recently completed a project for the Defense Logistics Agency at the New Cumberland location that included the removal, replacement, and installation of over 400 signs. The MUTCD was paramount in researching the standards and regulations set by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration. It should be noted that traffic control devices are also regulated at the state and local levels, however I primarily relied on the federal regulations as my project was on an installation owned by the U.S. government.

The manual is comprised of over 800 pages and is broken into ten (10) parts. Each part has their own chapter and each chapter has their own section. There is a PDF version of the document that makes it a little easier to traverse through, however it is still a good bit of text to read. With the help of a coworker I was lucky enough to find a third party website that had compiled all of the MUTCD data together into digital signs. This website had each part, chapter, and section broken down to display photos of every sign along with its description, use, and specifications.

This website is called the Manual of Traffic Signs and is presented by Moeurgineering, PLLC (Moeurgineering). It is very user friendly with the main page providing an index of every sign type (regulatory, warning, temporary, etc.). After selecting a sign type, such as regulatory, you’re taken to a page that lists every regulatory sign available in the MUTCD. You find the series of signs that you’re looking for and selecting this takes you to a page with every sign listed for that series. Each sign listed on this page has a thumbnail photo and links to a larger photo, PDF image, sign design and layout details, and the MUTCD regulations pertaining to the selected sign.

This website made my project sign research a thousand times easier. I fully recommend it if you ever find yourself in need of information on traffic control devices.

On April 7th, 2022 Elon Musk announced that Tesla’s newest factory, dubbed Giga Texas, is the largest building in the world. Measuring in at 1,166 meters it would be the tallest building on Earth (if the building was picked up and placed on it’s side). This would beat out the Burj Khalifa, which stands at 829 meters tall, by 337 meters. Again, this is if Giga Texas was picked up and placed on it’s side. However, Giga Texas is still the largest building in the world by volume; coming in at 338 million cubic meters of space (Business Insider). Elon announced that the factory was large enough for “194 billion hamsters to fit inside”.

While Giga Texas may be the largest building in the world due to its volume I still refer to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE as the tallest building in the world. The skyscraper comes in at 829 meters or 2,722 feet tall; which is over a half mile in height! As you can see in the image below it just towers above it neighboring structures. Whether you consider Giga Texas the largest building in the world or prefer it to be the Burj Khalifa; one thing is for certain. Both of these buildings are truly two of the greatest engineering marvels of this world.