A 3D printed house?

The New York Times ran an article recently about technology that can 'print' a building, eventually without human intervention.

Buildings made in a simple and modular way should be able to increase the options for affordable housing in many parts of the world. In addition, homes that could be easily taken apart and reassembled elsewhere would be very useful in dealing with climate and demographic changes.

The video above is another type of a 'printed' house, this time in China. They aren't very pretty, but they are simple and cheap to build, although the use of concrete is problematic for the global environment.

Many new technologies and methods are being tested in the coming years. It will be interesting to see which of them take hold!

Wooden Skyscrapers

I've posted before about the growing trend of wooden buildings being constructed with engineered wood like our little stuga. The Economist has a recent article about even taller structures being planned.

One of the most attractive things about a wooden skyscraper is its sustainability. Concrete and steel emit a significant amount of global CO², by some estimates over 5% of the annual total.

Wood, on the other hand, captures carbon dioxide, and comes from sustainable sources. When cared for properly, a wooden building can last as long- or longer- than a more modern structure.

The photo is of a proposed tower for central Stockholm, the "Tratoppen" (treetop in Swedish).

Who knows if anything like this will ever be built, but it is a lovely idea.

September weather

I plan to make this a monthly feature now that my weather station is on year-round.

We had only two real days of rain during the month. The temperature only slowly  dropped, but the wind certainly picked up.

It's interesting to see how the house warmed up on the inside on sunny days, although it cooled down quite a bit at night.

Let's see how cold it gets this winter....!

Swedish wine

I posted about a year ago about the rise of Swedish winemaking. Climate change is slowly making southern Sweden suitable for vinyards.

This year is another good one for the industry. Swedish Radio reports on a great harvest due to the warm summer.

Who knows? Maybe one of our wine boxes from the Systembolaget will soon be locally sourced!