"RedWorks’ vision for efficient 3D building materials is so exciting, it gets me thinking how quickly the way the world builds affordable and multi-purpose homes will change. Selfishly, I'm looking forward to the home my wife and I will build using RedWorks as we retire and downsize. The options and affordability will be amazingly useful."
-Hank Stringer, Stringer Executive Search Hank’s desire to downsize is becoming a common sentiment among people with kids out of the house and retirement approaching. A large portion of the population now finds themselves with homes that are no longer suited to their needs. When we speak to people in this position we always hear about how a home for 2.3 kids has become an expensive empty shell once they’re gone, with too much space and too much upkeep. Hank and others have described a desire among people their age to not only downsize, but to find a more practical and desirable home. “Tiny houses,” while more manageable, have drawbacks in that their spartan designs and limited footprints prevent them from taking advantage of existing utilities. Larger singlewide trailer homes don’t have the drawbacks of tiny-homes, but their standard designs aren’t desirable to homeowners looking to downsize. What is needed is a way to build homes that offer the low cost and practicality of a trailer home, with the attractive features of a tiny home. Furthermore, this solution must not only be used to build single properties, but communities that have the infrastructure to support their residents with the utility conveniences of full sized homes. Too often downsizing becomes a burden, as homeowners must either accept the high cost of traditionally built homes, communities with poorer infrastructure than they’re used to, or lonely plots without the community older homeowners desire. Our team is already working to make construction less costly and more adaptable by giving builders the power to make materials on-site, and this capability will be essential to making downsizing more affordable and practical. On-site 3d printing will also enable builders to create infrastructure more cheaply as well. The same dirt excavated to build walls, foundations, and roofing, can also be used to build drainage systems, sidewalks, and roads. Developers will have the means to build the kinds of communities older homeowners want, at a cost that won’t break the bank for builders, or make smaller homes too expensive for prospective buyers to downsize in the first place. We see our technology helping to create a new generation of villages and hamlets, literally from the ground up, where people like Hank can settle into retirement among friends without having to sacrifice the comfort and convenience of traditional suburban communities. Hank’s story is one of countless told by Americans nearing retirement, and construction needs to adapt to not only keep costs down but to make sure that downsizing doesn’t mean reducing quality of life. As members of the construction industry, we must work to keep innovating to lower costs down while maintaining quality as more people look to enter their golden years in a homes built for their needs.
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