Yep, construction materials are astronomically expensive now if you can even find them.
When adopted Chinese immigrant, Maggie Grout, was 15 she realized that the only way to bring about change is by doing things differently. Maggie knew that millions of children don’t have schools, largely due to construction costs. How could poor people in poor countries ever provide schools?
She had conversations with her dad, a cofounder of Mapquest, and thought, “Why couldn’t schools be 3D printed?”
Cheaper, easier to construct, and possible for nearly everyone. Since it’s technically printing out a school, the more you print, the less it costs per school.
Maggie got in cahoots with Hyperion Robotics, a Finnish 3-D printing company that mixes different materials to make furniture and even coral reefs.
The first school will start construction in Madagascar this July, using 3-D for desks and chairs, and solar panels for power.
The “Thinking Huts” are in honeycomb shapes to make expansion easy and beautiful, and Maggie just graduated from the University of Colorado. So she’s out fundraising now. Thinkinghuts.org.
Pic from Leeds School of Business