Housing construction: Heil wants digital renovation – houses made from 3D printers

Housing construction: Heil wants digital renovation – houses made from 3D printers

The construction worker is a 3D printer, the construction time is a maximum of two weeks: digitally built houses. For the Minister of Labor, this is just one example. He wants a modernization à la USA.

Federal Labor Minister Hubertus Heil (SPD) is calling for a digital overhaul of German industry. Houses could also be built on a large scale in Germany using 3D printers, Heil said on a trip to the USA in Austin (Texas). “That is exactly what we need in Germany,” said Heil in view of the local construction crisis.

Shell construction in one to two weeks

Heil visited a settlement of bungalows built in series, some of which are still under construction. “It’s crazy how quickly they can build a shell using a 3D printer.” The construction time for the shell is only one to two weeks, as the head of the project, Caleb Mann, reported to the astonished German minister. The cost of a turnkey bungalow: around 500,000 dollars (around 462,000 euros), according to real estate advertisements.

In principle, Heil himself would have nothing against living in a 3D-printed house, he said. “I found it very, very appealing and beautiful.” The houses have a good indoor climate and high energy efficiency. “They can also have a quality of life and living.”

Heil sees opportunities for construction workers

“We have to put technology at the service of social progress,” said Heil. The goal must be for machines to take hard, laborious work away from people, so that employees can then concentrate on the things that computers and robots cannot do. Take construction, for example: here, manufacturing methods using artificial intelligence offer opportunities.

“Construction workers in Germany work in all weathers and are exposed to dangers on the construction site,” said Heil. If the hardest work on the shell of the building is completely taken over by machines, people can develop further and do other work too. For example, a lot of human labor is still needed for interior work. “Human labor will always be needed in construction.” This applies to the industry as a whole.

Healing for Renewal

On the last day of a trip to the USA, Heil also visited a tech company in Austin that is modernizing entire industries with artificial intelligence. “We also have to ensure that we work together across the Atlantic on such issues.” Germany must now also focus even more on digital progress. “We have to shape it,” said Heil. “We have to get going now.”

Heil sees Germany’s chances in the race for new technologies and their application as good. “We have a strong industrial base, which we need to preserve by digitizing it,” he warned. Unlike in the USA, however, much less private capital is being invested in modernization in Germany.

295,000 new apartments instead of the planned 400,000

On the subject of construction, Heil’s cabinet colleague Klara Geywitz (SPD), who is responsible for construction, recently confirmed that she sees serial construction as a model for the future. This will enable the large gaps in the German housing market to be filled more quickly. Against the backdrop of the German construction crisis and the housing shortage, particularly in cities, Heil announced that he would work to ensure that such houses are built in Germany too.

Due to the sharp rise in interest rates and construction costs, housing construction is in crisis. Private builders are just as afraid of building projects as large investors, and many projects are being cancelled. Building permits have also plummeted – a bad omen for the future.

When the federal government took office, it had set a target of 400,000 new apartments per year – a figure that experts consider ambitious even under ideal conditions. Last year, just under 295,000 new apartments were completed in Germany, slightly less than the previous year.

Source: Stern

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