David Leach Mops The floor of a 3D printed concrete house, which was built on February 19 in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert
While the Americans are fighting under the rental prices in the background, the builders turn innovative ways to achieve more living space, from 3D printing to houses in an inner factory to the use of Hanf -yes, the marijuana cousin -to produce building blocks for walls.
It is a reaction to the lack of millions of houses in the country that led to the prices into poverty.
“There are not enough houses for sale and there are not enough rental places. The time,” said Adrianne Todman, the reigning secretary of the US Ministry for Housing and Urban Development under the former President Joe Biden.
One way to build up more quickly is the hug of this type of innovations, said Todman. “I can only imagine what our living situation would look like if we had the decision to be more aggressive in the introduction of this kind of living space decades ago.
What are these new ways to build houses? And can you help reduce the costs for new apartments, which leads to lower rents?
Modular houses built by Fading West can be seen in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025
Established housings compiled in a week
In a cave -like metal hall, Eric Schaefer stood in front of a long series of modular houses that moved through the plant, similar to a car on a assembly line.
At a series of stations, the workers placed floors, built -up frames, added roofs and were jammed at drywall. From electrical cabling to devices to kitchen worktops, there was before the houses were fetched and ready for shipping.
Business in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, which fades west, pumped more than 500 houses in the operation of more than three years, only five to seven days in the coldest winter months, said Schaefer.
A worker inspects the framework of a modular home in the fading Westfabrik in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025
As soon as the narrow houses in the town house are carried out in the factory in the factory in the factory with white equipment, balconies and verands to about 90%. You are finished within six weeks of your final goal, said Schaefer.
The company works with cities, counties and non -profit organizations to remedy the lack of affordable houses, mainly for workers who were pushed out by sky -high prices in scratchy mountain cities.
This includes Eagle, Colorado, not far from the Vail Ski area, in which the fading of west has worked together with habitat for humanity to install modular houses in affordable rents for teachers and other employees of the school district. The houses are usually on the smaller side, but can be multi-family or single-family houses.
“You can build faster. The faster you build – even in high quality – the lower the price,” said Schaefer. “We see this as one of the pieces to the puzzle to solve the affordable real estate crisis.”
The establishment of the factory is in advance, and part of the challenge is a lack of state and federal investments, he said. A patchwork of building regulations that also make it difficult to build a structure makes it difficult and requires changes to the construction, depending on the city or the district to which it is sent to.
Modular houses built by Fading West can be seen in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025
The manufacturing housing is similar to the modular housing, but the units are built on a chassis – like a trailer – and they are not exposed to the same local building regulations. This is part of the reason why they are used more generally in the United States.
Around 100,000 houses manufactured were shipped to the states in 2024 after about 60,000 a decade. Estimates of modular houses that were built annually often left less than 20,000.
The 3D printing is innovative, but still a long game
Yes, 3D printing houses have technology.
A computer -controlled robot arm, which is equipped with a hose and a nozzle, moves back and forth, with the concrete lines being on top of each other as it builds up the wall of a house. It can go relatively quickly and form curved walls in contrast to concrete blocks.
Grant Hamel, CEO and co -founder of Verotouch, stood in one of the houses that his company built. The wall behind it from rolling concrete layers, which differ to a 3D printer. Ultimately, the technology could reduce labor costs and time that is required to build a residence, but has continued to run as a manufacturer or modular methods if you create a dent in the real estate crisis.
It is “a long game to start every step of the construction process at these prices,” said Hamel.
The 3D printers are expensive, as well as the engineers and other qualified employees who have to do, said Ali Memari, director of the Pennsylvania Housing Research Center, whose work has partially focused on 3D printing. It is also not recognized by international building regulations, which creates more bureaucracy.
Workers build modular houses in the fading Westfabrik in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025
The technology is generally limited to one -story structures unless
It is “a technology at the beginning, it has space for growth, especially when it is recognized in code,” said Memari. “The challenges I mentioned exist and they have to be addressed by the research community.”
A hemp and lime mixture called Hanfcrete has “a brilliant future”
Hemp – the plant in connection with marijuana – is used more and more in the construction of walls.
The hemp is mixed with other materials, especially the mineral limestone and forms “hemp cret”, a natural insulation that is shape and fire-resistant and can act as an outer wall, insulation and inner wall.
Hempcrete still needs wooden tunnels to frame the walls, but he replaces three components of wall building with only one, said Memari, also a professor at the civil and environmental technology department at Penn State University. Memari now helps to monitor the research of the production of hempcrete, where no wooden tunnels are required.
A worker builds part of a modular home in the fading Westfabrik in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025
In contrast to trees, a million hemp plants can grow on a hectare that can take years or decades in a few months.
The plant is part of the cannabis family, but has far fewer psychoactive components, THC, which can be found in marijuana. In 2018, the congress legalized the production of certain hempers. Last year, the International Code Council, which developed international building regulations that are used by all 50 states, accepted Hanferte as isolation.
Workers build the floor coverings of a modular at home in the fading Westfabrik in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025
Confusion about the legality of the cultivation of the hemp and the price tag of the machine, which is required to process the system, which is required as the decorative agent, are obstacles to hemp residents that are further spread in housing, said Memari.
Nevertheless, he said: “Hanpcrete has a brilliant future.”
• The video journalist from Associated Press, Thomas Peipert, contributed to this report by Buena Vista, Colorado.
• Bedayn is a Corps member for the “Associated Press/Report” initiative for America Statehouse News. The report for America is a non -profit National Service program that reports journalists in local news editorial offices on hidden topics.
Modular houses that are wrapped in plastic are waiting for shipping outside of the fading Westfabrik in Buena Vista, Colorado.
AP Photo/Thomas Peipert, February 2025