Re: portable brick machine, I think automation would have to advance a lot before something like this ended up being cost effective (and the resulting automation could probably do a lot of other, more interesting things than just “assemble bricks”)
Re: mortar, folks are already doing this (this is what fastbrick robotics uses, basically)
Re: 3D printing, I don’t think this is especially likely, mostly because people want brick specifically because of how it looks—it’s already a sort of cost-inefficient system that people choose for the aesthetics. Adding another system to the mix doesn’t seem like it would change this calculus, even in the event it becomes super efficient (which seems unlikely to me).
Thanks!
Re: portable brick machine, I think automation would have to advance a lot before something like this ended up being cost effective (and the resulting automation could probably do a lot of other, more interesting things than just “assemble bricks”)
Re: mortar, folks are already doing this (this is what fastbrick robotics uses, basically)
Re: 3D printing, I don’t think this is especially likely, mostly because people want brick specifically because of how it looks—it’s already a sort of cost-inefficient system that people choose for the aesthetics. Adding another system to the mix doesn’t seem like it would change this calculus, even in the event it becomes super efficient (which seems unlikely to me).