Brandon Donnelly — Daily insights for city builders. Published since 2013 by Toronto-based real estate developer Brandon Donnelly. — Page 452

I'm not sure how I missed this before, but ground has just been broken on what is being called " the world's largest 3D-printed community ." Co-designed by ICON and Bjarke Ingels Group and "implemented" by Lennar, the community, which is located north of Austin, Texas, will consist of 100 homes ranging from 1,500 to 2,100 square feet. There are 8 different floor plans and 24 different elevations to choose from. Each home will also come with rooftop solar panels.

Here's a short description on how the overall construction process is working:

To automate the manufacturing of homes ICON is using its  Vulcan robotic construction system , a large, transportable printer that can be used in tandem with Magma, a cement mixing machine. The homes are being constructed out of Lavacrete, a durable-concrete polymer added in layers to form the structure’s facade and foundation by Vulcan. Their design blends Texas ranch vernacular with sustainable technology, providing a model for the future of large-scale 3D construction. The residences will adhere to a common design, featuring metal roofs, concrete floors, and distinct curvilinear and rib-textured concrete walls, which are the product of  3D printing .

It is quite a different looking construction site:

https://twitter.com/ICON3DTech/status/1590826831368040449?s=20&t=arC32yYkYM1hEqOyQNOflA

Now, there is certainly a conversation to be had about what these machines are building as a housing typology: This is still suburban sprawl, regardless of how the homes are being made and if there are solar panels on the roof. But if you ignore all of this for a minute, there is obviously something pretty incredible about 3D printing being able to now deliver stuff at the scale of a suburban housing project. It represents a fundamental change in how we build, in an industry that has a long history of changing very little.

The government of Ontario is trying to encourage the construction of a lot of new housing over the next 10 years. More specifically, the plan is for 1.5 million new homes from now until 2033. To have a chance at hitting this target, the province has rightly recognized that some things will need to change around here and so they've been busy coming up with legislative changes such as Bill 23 (the More Homes Built Faster Act, 2022 ).

The Bill is really long, so I personally appreciate it when the act name itself does a good job of summarizing what it's all about: more homes, built faster. But if you'd like to read the entire thing, you can do that over here . I also attended a breakfast this morning -- put on by Goodmans -- that provided a great summary of the key points. I took all of my notes on Twitter through a live stream, so if you'd like something more digestible, click here .

https://twitter.com/donnelly_b/status/1592511205415211009?s=20&t=3m7bkVRf8Mr6B41tYQWHSw

At a very high level, I would say that there are some obviously good changes in the Bill and some other things that will need refinement, such as the proposed changes around third-party appeals. The devil is in the details. And that was actually one of the key takeaways from the breakfast: This government is not afraid of being bold, moving quickly, and then working iteratively with stakeholders. It's a less typical approach for government, but done is better than perfect, right?

Japanese Metabolism was a post-war architectural movement that was based around the idea that cities and buildings should be able to grow and transform just like other organisms. There are other elements to the movement, but this was at its core. And perhaps the best example of the Metabolism movement was the Nakagin Capsule Tower in Tokyo (pictured above).

Constructed between 1970 and 1972, the 13-storey tower consisted of two structural elements and 140 self-contained / prefabricated capsules that were hung off the building's cores.

The original intent was that these capsules could be removed and replaced over time and that the building could evolve just like any other organism might. But that never really happened and, coming on the end, only about 30 of the 140 capsules were apparently still being lived in, with the others being used for various purposes, such as storage, or not at all.

And so after a whole lot of debate, the building was disassembled earlier this year, which isn't quite the same as a straight demolition. The pods were removed and then the core came down.

But a number of the pods have been salvaged. The architect's family took 4 pods and created an Airbnb retreat a few hours outside of Tokyo . And a longtime resident in the building decided to quit his job, acquire 23 of the capsules , and dedicate his life to now getting these things into museums and other commercial settings.

I don't feel like it's my place to comment on whether disassembling the tower was a good idea or not. But I do think there's something poetic about an icon of Metabolism having its capsules removed, restored, and then sprinkled around various places. Wasn't that always kind of the intent?

Photo by  Roman Davydko  on  Unsplash