This isn’t a new idea but I get the argument that it’s bad for tradesfolk.
“At 1,738 square feet of livable space, the custom, single-family home will feature three bedrooms, two full bathrooms, and overlook Clark Park, a center of activity with its community garden, ballfield, playground and recreation center. Approximately 70-80% of the home will be 3D printed, including all the internal and external walls; the remainder will be built using traditional construction methods. The home will be solar ready once construction is completed; Habitat Central Arizona is also pursuing LEED® Platinum certification and IBHS FORTIFIED Home™ designation.”
The good news is, they needn’t worry as these “solutions” need land to be useful: if land was affordable in Tempe or anywhere else, houses would be built as needed. This might lower the cost by removing the need for labor — and the limitations that creates are called out in the article — but don’t laborers need jobs and houses too?
Now, if someone was making these to be stacked in a multilevel arrangement, like the Habitat project at Expo 67 or the various “apodment” or capsule hotels we see, it would make more sense. And that would be a more interesting design challenge: how to make a living unit that would be installed into a larger cluster, where services (sanitary, power, ingress/egress) all meet up, would be something to see.
But if the answer is always single family homes on their own lot — a private park at the expense of a more useful public space — we are asking the wrong question.