Flat-Pack Houses vs 3D-Printed Homes: Which Works Now?

The housing crunch has spawned a wave of creative building methods — flat-packed homes from companies like Muji and BoKlok, 3D-printed subdivisions from ICON, open-source plywood houses from WikiHouse, and even moving entire structures on trucks. But which of these approaches is actually feasible right now, and which is still hype? This episode breaks down the real costs, timelines, and tradeoffs of each method, from IKEA-adjacent apartment blocks in Sweden to a hundred-home 3D-printed community in Texas. If you've ever wondered whether you could actually build a house from a catalog, or what a 3D-printed home really costs per square foot, this is the episode for you.