During my college years, I was involved in a rural housing project as part of my school “give-back to the community” program with the goal of providing housing for the rural area north of Sampang in the Island of Madura, East Java, Indonesia.

We intend to provide technical skill from our Civil Engineering and Architect while using the donation money to purchase the material and hire local labor. Early on after my initial site inspection, it was clear the problem why the housing condition is so poor over there is because of lack of building materials due to the remoteness of the location. Less than half of the road was paved thus make the price of building materials (if it’s available) 3-4x what it cost in the city on the main island. We decided it will be better, in the long run, to teach locals on how to make their building material which is clay brick and building a small factory with two kilns that can produce around 500 blocks a day, typical house needs about 1000-1500 blocks.

oh how bad I want this to work but hauling tons of sensitive equipment that need big electricity into area that don’t even have road (and some don’t even have electricity so you need to haul your own generator too ..and its fuel) in the first place sounds like a tall order. With the low labor cost in the developed country and so many unemployed , I don’t think the ability to build the house in 24 hours is exactly the most important issue unless if it’s in a disaster area.

I have very positive outlook with 3D printing technology in the house but primarily due to its speed and automation (especially in the area with high labor cost) and using recyclable materials or abundant local materials to reduce our environmental impact.

Regardless, this company try to solve some housing issue which itself worthy of commendation.