In New York City, a startup Automatic Construction has been working on a building method that enables its workers to blow up a house and inject concrete into its walls. According to the company, houses constructed using this approach can be put up in less than an hour and cost roughly one-fifth as much as those constructed in the United States using more conventional cast-in-place concrete techniques.
Alex Bell, the company’s CEO, and co-founder wants to soon have reinforcing materials like tension wires and rebar pre-installed inside the forms. He called it “Inflatable Flexible Factory Formwork.” Because the forms are manufactured in the factory and there is no wood waste, this patented building method promises to lower on-site labor expenses.
The company also claims that because the structures are built using air and concrete pumps, the procedure is twice as quick as traditional construction methods. The carbon-storage concrete and other building elements used in the inflatable flexible manufacturing formwork help lower greenhouse gas emissions.
Although the size of those is unknown, the prototypes the company has so far constructed are more appropriately referred to as tiny homes than starter homes; they may be big enough for one person, but they are not likely to fit a family.
Together with other alternative construction techniques like 3D printing and folding homes, the company’s small concrete houses could contribute to the solution of the housing issue.
