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US home building sank in August, dropping 11.3% from July levels, as mortgage rates stayed elevated amid lingering inflation. Housing starts, a measure of new-home construction, dropped to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.283 million last month, well below expectations of 1.44 million, according to data released Tuesday by the Census Bureau. It was the lowest level since June 2020. The number of units started was 14.8% lower than a year ago. Single‐family housing starts, which account for most of the construction, dropped 4.3% in August from the revised July figure, at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 941,000....

No need for software if you can learn from nature, at least that's what my ancestors did. Take the ancient Temple of Borobudur for example. Borobudur - Wikipedia If this colossal structure were to be build today the amount of computation and simulation required to complete it would be very great. But because there were no computers in the 9th century what my ancestors did to complete this beautiful edifice was quite interesting in it self. The learn from observation and harnessing everything that nature has given them in order to complete this temple. Borobudur is located on the South...

From its bamboo floors to its rooftop deck, Clayton Homes' new industrial-chic "i-house" is about as far removed from a mobile home as an iPod from a record player. Architects at the country's largest manufactured home company embraced the basic rectangular form of what began as housing on wheels and gave it a postmodern turn with a distinctive v-shaped roofline, energy efficiency and luxury appointments. Stylistically, the "i-house" might be more at home in the pages of a cutting-edge architectural magazine like Dwell— an inspirational source — than among the Cape Cods and ranchers in the suburbs. The layout of...

3D printing is fast becoming one of the most useful tools ever developed by humans. The technique can be used to print pretty much anything from food to new body parts. 3D printers can also be used to print novelty items, tools, weapons and even buildings. The technology has already had a huge impact on the modern world and is set to become ever more important in many industries of the future. In most cases, the only real limitation to what can be 3D printed is our imagination, as these 15 amazing 3D printed objects testify to. The following list...

Need a house? Just click your mouse three times and say “There’s no place like home.” A building company is now selling actual houses on Amazon that anyone can purchase online–but they are not your average humble abode. The tiny houses, sold by MODS International, are fashioned out of shipping containers and are each 320 square feet, according to Apartment Therapy. Despite their shortcomings, the homes seem rather luxurious inside.....

The future of U.S. homebuilding depends on more people like Cyndicy Yarborough, a 26-year-old former Wal-Mart clerk with no background in construction. At Blueprint Robotics in Baltimore, she works in a factory that builds houses like cars, on an assembly line, using robots that fire thousands of nails into studs each day and never miss. Yarborough operates a machine that lifts floors and walls and packs them onto a flatbed truck, the final step before delivery to a development site where they’ll be pieced together. “I like being a part of something new, on the cutting edge,” said Yarborough, a...

The first house printed using mobile 3D printing technology has been built in Stupino town, Moscow region. The Apis Cor and PIK companies have successfully completed the project. How it was builtIn December 2016, the Apis Cor company in cooperation with PIK proceeded to print the building using a mobile 3D printer. Construction took place at the Apis Cor company's test facility in the town of Stupino, on the territory of the Stupino aerated concrete factory. Printing of self-bearing walls, partitions and building envelope were done in less than a day: pure machine time of printing amounted to 24 hours....

Triton Stone Group, a wholesale distributor of granite and other natural stone products, is moving its headquarters to the New Orleans area from north Mississippi, officials said Wednesday. The company is expanding its existing administrative offices in Harahan to serve as the headquarters for the business. An additional auxiliary office is located in Mandeville. The move comes after Triton Stone Group of New Orleans acquired the Triton Stone brand in a $40 million deal. Triton Stone will create 12 new direct jobs with the project, with an average annual salary of $75,800, plus benefits. Louisiana Economic Development estimates the project...

Nobel laureate economist Robert Shiller says President-elect Donald Trump is showing Americans how to live large and love it. "We used to be more into modest living," the Yale professor told CNBC, speaking about the years after the financial crisis. "Now people are thinking, '[that] doesn't work.' You know? You have to live big-league and you're on your way," Shiller said. Shiller said the excitement is visible at Trump rallies and in the stock market. Shiller's comments add to budding sentiment that America's new billionaire-in-chief — with his gold-plated penthouse, private jumbo jet and multiple mansions — could shift U.S....

Call it the Trump rally in homebuilding — not the stocks, but the sentiment of the builders themselves. A monthly reading of homebuilder confidence spiked 7 points in December, its first measure done after the presidential election. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI) rose to 70, the highest level since July 2005. Fifty is the line between positive and negative sentiment. The index has not jumped by this much in one month in 20 years. It stood at 60 one year ago. "This notable rise in builder sentiment is largely attributable to a postelection bounce,...

Thursday, August 11, 2016:Full replay of Donald Trump’s address to the National Association of Home Builders Board of Directors Meeting in Miami, FL at the Sparkle Ballroom at Fontainebleau Miami. Full Speech: Donald Trump Addresses NAHB Board of Directors 8/11/16

We’ve seen 3D-printed houses before, but most make use of prefabricated chunks. This hurricane and tornado resistant hotel suite in the Philippines was printed in one shot. Sound familiar? This is the work of [Andrey Rudenko], who started by building a concrete 3D printer in his garage 2 years ago, moved on to 3D printing his kids a concrete castle in his backyard later that year and now appears to have a full-blown company offering commercial 3D printed houses. Way to go [Andrey]! The building was designed in Sketchup no less, and the printer makes use of Pronterface for the...

The dream of 3D printing buildings is not a new one and, typically, it’s not a pretty one either. However, the visionaries at Branch Technology, a startup founded by architects in Chattanooga, Tennessee, want to change that—and they’ve built the world’s largest free form 3D printer to do it. The Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce flew me down to Tennessee to check out its gigabit internet and innovative startups. They paid for my hotel and fed me candied bacon.Branch’s mission is simple: Use 3D printing technology to create walls of any shape out of conventional construction materials. Building houses like this...

(SLIDE-SHOW-AT-LINK)A pioneering 3D-printed house just popped up in Xian, China - and Chinese company ZhuoDa “built” the two-story villa in less than three hours. Made up of six 3D-printed modules, the house was assembled like LEGO bricks before a live audience who were then invited to explore the interior. The modular fireproof home can withstand a magnitude-9 earthquake and is made from a special construction material the company is keeping secret. The company completed approximately 90 percent of the construction in an off-site factory before shipping the modular pieces to the installation site. The company completed approximately 90 percent of...

While there are currently many developments being made across the entire additive manufacturing industry, among others that have been standing out as of late have consisted of 3D printing applications that are of either very large scale or very small scale applications. So far, the smaller applications have mainly consisted of research into nanoscale 3D printing for purposes such as biomedical engineering applications including cell scaffolding while the larger applications have been focused on creating architectural structures such as those that can be created in any geographical area using found materials. Needless to say, the developments surrounding these scaled applications...

Sound Concepts installs the largest Elan g! system ever in 43,000-square-foot home featured in 'Amazing America with Sarah Palin' and 'Clash of the Ozarks' cable TV shows. Home amenities include a tanning room, golf simulator and deer processing plant. How do you get your home or technology installation featured on national television? Make it enormous, make it impressive and create an original house that blows people away. Having recently appeared on both Discovery Channel’s “Clash of the Ozarks” and Sportsman Channel’s “Amazing America with Sarah Palin,” this Arkansas residence has many unique and luxurious features, including the largest ELAN g!...

We’ve all heard that millenials are the key to the housing recovery and that home prices are set to skyrocket just as soon as all the people renting or living in family homes (read: basements) get out, get married, get employed, and settle down in their new homes. However, for some reason, the estimates for when all this will happen just keep moving farther and farther out. In an effort to determine just what is delaying renters from becoming homeowners, the New York Federal Reserve conducted a Survey of Consumer Expectations to address the issue. The study found that while...

3D castle printed by Andrey Rudenko in Shorewood, Minnesota as seen at the end of August 2014. The castle is about 3.5 metres high.People have used 3D printers to print everything from medical devices to guns. But one Minnesota man is hoping to take this new technology to the next level and print a house. Andrey Rudenko, of Shorewood, Min., plans for the house to be about 10 metres by 20 metres. If it is two storeys, it will be about 3,600 square feet. And he is hoping to print the entire house in about a week. It would be...

Building site of the first ever 3D printed estate in Gardiner, New York. New York City architect/contractor Adam Kushner begins construction of the first ever 3D printed estate, which features a 3D printed swimming pool, 4-bedroom, 2400 square foot home, and more. The 3D printer which will be a modified version of Enrico DiniÂ’s D-shape printer, will, if all goes as planned, eventually be able to automatically place rebar within the 3D printed house, as it prints. We have covered a lot of news concerning the 3D printing of houses, over the course of the last year or so. Whether...

Scientists claim to have developed a revolutionary new giant 3D concrete printer that can build a 2,500-square-foot house in just 24 hours. The 3D printer, developed by Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis from the University of Southern California, could be used to build a whole house, layer by layer, in a single day. The giant robot replaces construction workers with a nozzle on a gantry, which squirts out concrete and can quickly build a home based on a computer pattern, MSN News reported. It is "basically scaling up 3D printing to the scale of building," said Khoshnevis. 'Contour Crafting' is a...