2020-2021学年度第44期总第836期
Printing houses (P6)
山东省烟台第二中学 赵娜娜

Lead-in
What kind of technology is used in this picture?

Lead-in
What is 3D printing?
3D printing is a family of processes that produces objects by adding material in layers that correspond to successive (连续的) cross-sections (横断面) of a 3D model. Plastics and metal alloys are the most commonly used materials for 3D printing, but it can work on nearly anything — from concrete to living tissue.

What is 3D printing used for?

Read for details
Read the text carefully and answer the following questions.
1. How do the 3D printers print a house?
2. What are the benefits of using 3D printers to build houses?
3. What is the future of the 3D-printed housing industry?

Title prediction
Printing houses
How are houses printed?
Why are houses printed?

Read for main idea
Startups around the world are now using 3D printing technology for home construction for the reason that it’s faster, cheaper and more sustainable than traditional methods.

Read for structure  

Reading for details
1. How do the 3D printers print a house?
  Machines deposit thin layers of material.
                     
The three-dimensional house is built from the ground up.

2. What are the benefits of using 3D printers to build homes?
  It’s more sustainable.
  Printing houses can also save huge amounts of scrap wood, metal and other construction
materials that would otherwise be wasted by ending up in landfills.
  It saves time and money.
  3D printing systems can equal the work output of 10 to 20 workers in five or six different trades.
The machines can work 24 hours a day as well, saving developers both time and money.
  It offers access to houses.
  This powerful automation has the potential to combat rising prices in the housing market,
homelessness and overcrowding.

3. What’s the future of the 3D-printed housing industry?
The rapid realization of affordable homes with control over the shape of your own house
An architectural and technology design agency has set out to design a Mars habitat to be
printed from ground up Martian rocks and a plant-based polymer.

Post-reading
What’s your opinion on 3D printing houses?
The 3D-printing construction technology can save money and reduce waste.

The technology will help address the extreme lack of housing that has left us with problems relating to supply, sustainability, resilience, affordability and design options.

The 3D-printing technology also provides safer, more resilient houses that are designed to withstand fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built houses.

Homework: