80. The Future of Glamping: 3D-Printed Eco Pods From Recycled Plastic Bottles!

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Speaker C: going to stretch your imagination in the very best way. Imagine a guest pod or retreat space on your land. That's beautiful, durable, fully customizable and made from recycled plastic bottles. Sounds futuristic. Well, my goodness me, you might be right. I'm joined by Gene Idelman, co founder of Azure Printed Homes, a groundbreaking company revolutionizing how we build and how we think about building. With a background in innovation and a passion for sustainability, Gene and his team are transforming recycled materials into stunning eco conscious structures using cutting edge 3D printing technology. In this episode, we cover what printed homes really are and how the process actually works, why this technology is perfectly suited for off grid and eco glamping sites. Uh, how using materials like recycled bottles and food containers isn't just possible, it's powerful and the real world benefits for hosts, from reduced costs and build time to serious sustainable credentials. We also explore how the Azure approach allows for incredible design freedom, making it easier than ever to bring your unique vision to life. Whether you're adding a single pod or planning a full scale resort, this is one of those conversations that will leave you full of ideas, with a fresh perspective and maybe just a touch of awe. Let's dive in because the future has already arrived. Glamping and unique holiday rentals are surging in popularity with the growing desire of customers to book holidays that deliver, uh, an expand. They are also the new business of choice for those wanting to improve their work life balance. So how do you build a strong business like this that gives you the life you need and a great investment? I'm Sarah Riley and I want to share what I've discovered after being immersed in this industry for over 20 years to inspire you to find out more about what's going on. Welcome. This is the business of glamping and unique holiday rentals. Before we start with the episode, I want to share something with you. For years I've been guiding people to launch and grow their own unique glamping businesses and transformational retreat events. And honestly, I've lost count of the number of times someone said to me, this is great, but can you just do it for me? For a long time my answer has been no. But not anymore. Now I've built a team, a hand picked collective of trusted creative experts who understand our industry. We've come together to offer done for you marketing and business support so you can stop carrying it all on your own and start focusing on what you love most. Creating beautiful experiences and lifelong memories for your guests. Because let's be honest, until now your team has been you. And that's just not enough. You wear all the hats, manage all the customers and still need to figure out the ever changing world of marketing. Bookings dip algorithms, shift, competition gets fierce, you become less visible and it feels like you're carrying the world on your shoulders. But now you can expand your team without having to expand your payroll and finally get the help you need to take the pressure off and move forward. To find out more about the team you've always wanted but never had, head over to inspiredcourses.com team and uh, learn about what inspired collective offers and let's get some of those to do's off your plate. But be aware that we only have capacity to work with a handful of people. So if you're interested, be sure to get in touch. All right, back to the episode. Jean, it's so wonderful to see you and really grateful for you to spend some time with me today to talk about the amazingness which is azure printed homes. Now some people, they'll be, they'll be saying to themselves, printed homes. What on earth is that? So let's start there. Explain what it is and how it works. Sure.

Speaker B: Well, Sarah, nice, nice to see you as well. And uh, yeah, we've met at the climbing show and it was great seeing Marisa Leaker Resort Network. To answer your question, we uh, were looking for ways to build faster, less expensive and with less environmental impact. That was the mission of the company when we started. We had no idea that we're going to come up with a way to print them. But first, our ah, first moment. I'm just thinking through this. We just decided building structures in a factory makes a lot more sense than doing them on site. And it's not a structure but homes. And it's just when you do it in the factory there is a climate control so you're not slowed down by weather, higher quality control so you can actually monitor when every step is made. And again it is much more predictable in terms of materials. So you can order just what you need. But we started this doing this during COVID and there were all kind of disruptions in supply chain. So even that didn't move. Didn't move. The needle didn't move much faster. So we saw 3D printing of buildings. Uh, that started about 10 years ago in Europe, actually in France, where first the family moved into a 3D printed house. But all of that was done with cement. Concrete. And just by definition, cement is terrible for the environment. The truck industry is the third worst pollution lunar primarily because of use of cement. And cement generates CO2. So we said is there any way to print to 3D print but use a deuterium material? And also printing with cement, you have to do it on site. For our industry, for ecoresorative lamping, there's small structures spread out. Uh, it's just impractical to bring multimillion dollar pieces. Went to a site to print. So we found alternative material. And so we use this material as a combination of fiberglass and recycled polymers and brand them in the factory. The process is totally automated, much faster. There Is plenty of recycled water bottles all over the world in food containers. And the structures that come out, they're much lighter than, uh, cement or any traditional material. So they're easier to take to isolated places. They're very strong being. You know, we're based in California, which is probably the most regulated place in the world. So we had to prove that it can be stadium, the earthquake and high winds, but it also shipped to areas where there's snow. So snow loads. Yeah. So we met all of those criteria. And being contractors to get into this or developers, we really thought about how can misunas be permitted, insured and financed. And so once we answer those questions and answer regular questions, make sure that the structures are, are, uh, can, can basically alternate material for, for construction codes. We started making them and started shipping, um, them.

Speaker C: So I, I want to, just in case somebody's in their car and they're listening to the podcast or they're cleaning up their property because the guests have left or whatever. I just want to make sure they heard what it' that it's made from plastic bottles and plastic food containers and mixed up with some fiberglass. That's correct, yes, that's correct.

Speaker B: Yeah. The fiberglass is a material that adds the strength and meets all of the criteria. So the recycled plastic actually excellent as a resin. It basically connects the layers of fiberglass. So, well, 65% with combined weight is the recycled plastic. It's, it, it really has the strengths of the fiberglass. And if you can, if you can think of what you did is fiberglass is bolts. You know, speed boats are made from fiberglass. A lot of car. So this is very strong material. And to make every structure, we use 500 layers of this, uh, as a printer goes round and round. Um, and so every layer needs to be attached to the layer before that. And, and so plastic is aristagle. Plastic is a great resin that allows this connection to work.

Speaker C: So how does it work in terms of how big it is? The, the printer that does this? Because you're talking about printing in one go a big structure that someone can live in. So how does that work and how big is that printer? Tell me about that process.

Speaker B: Right. So we use, uh, probably the largest industrial robots. They can go up to the required height that we have. And so we print units that are 10 and a half feet, 10 and a half feet tall, 20ft long and 9ft wide. And these are modules. So then we can connect the modules together to make them five times, uh, that module. But a large robot cannot reach to all these dimensions I mentioned. So we've invented a platform. Think of it as a, basically it's a rotating platform. So instead of the robot reaching out to the furthest corner of the structure, the platform brings the human to the robot. So that was kind of the aha, uh moment because we couldn't find anything off the shelf that printed the structures of the sizes that we wanted. So that took some innovation, some thought through. How can we make this. Primarily we could find anything that prints anything over five feet tall. Four or five feet was the maximum. And we wanted to print the whole thing you mentioned all in one go, that's ten and a half feet tall. So it was really uh, an idea that, you know, you sometimes see this rotating in the Chinese restaurant, right? You have this, they call it, they

Speaker C: call it a Lazy Susan in the uk.

Speaker B: Lazy Susan, right. Lazy Susan brings the meal to you. This is exactly, it is a lot of Chinese food that made you think of this.

Speaker C: So I love that, I love that. So tell me if I was somebody in the glamping world, I've got my land. I want to choose structures, but I want to have a structure that I've designed or my architect text designed and it's a little bit different and I'd like to use recycled materials. I mean how does the design aspect happen? Do you just plug it into a computer and then it just prints out exactly what you want? Explain that a bit,

Speaker B: somewhat like you described, but not as simple. So uh, if somebody wants to buy one or two structures, they can go on their website and pick. We have like four different designs. But if somebody wants to create a resort like uh, the client we have now actually talked about that client Eco resort and then thereby 30 units now we have ability to really be creative. The reality is designing for 3D printer is much easier than designing for a traditional wood structure. And we're limited by a two by four. You know you don't have to have square corners for anything. Right. So we really have a process that we can take uh, somebody's vision and combine that with some of the options that we have and create a structure that meets their criteria. And what's exciting about current state of the world is we can actually use AI. Somebody could send us a picture of if they saw something or just a hand drawn picture of what they'd like to do and when are we going to create something that maybe doesn't necessarily meet 100% what that picture shows. But we can have a design agent take a look at all the different shapes that we've already printed. And we can make something that really fits the criteria. We print only four sides of the structure, so the roof, two sides and the floor. So really, just by definition, the front and the back are totally open for customization. You can have a, uh, sliding door or a regular door. We can have more glass and no glass. So really, to begin with, the front, the back or the way it looks and the exterior you use is totally separate customization. But, uh, we really can design segments very unique. And you know how in the eco resorts or in glamour, people don't necessarily want to stay in the same unit. Right. So. So we can even create four or five different variations where you can name them, whichever kind of name ideas you have, and they will have a different look. We can also create a. We just. We're working with a resort in Colorado where there's going to be beautiful views of the night sky and you can see Milky Way without telescope. And they want to have a, um, sky, you know, more than just skylight. They want to have much more of a view of this beautiful sky when you're in your. So all kind of things are possible and it's much easier because you really are, uh, just like I said, you're not using traditional materials that have to be square or rectangular or. And we're not using the roof that blocks the sky. So we really can make it. The other advantages of what we're doing is they're very well insulated. So, uh, because we actually print as a printer goes around, it prints the outside wall and then it makes a little torque and it prints the inside wall and then it will leave space in the middle for insulation. So the urine is very well insulated. Any standard. You look around the world, the standard square for fire insulation on the roof, maybe a little bit lower in the walls and very little in the floor because you have a cement path. Well, we're insulated all the way around. So we usually take the highest insulations required in the rule, and it's all the way around. What you find with this is a couple things. First of all, units are very quiet. I, um, know you remember when people see our units at the shows, when they come in and you close the door, people are just amazed how quiet they can be. Secondly, because they're so well insulated, even when you install air conditioning heating, it can run with a solar power. So many of our installations are in places that are off grid. And the reason is normally the unit is not well insulated. Then you need A lot more power to run an air conditioning. But if you have a AC unit that doesn't need to work as hard because the place is insulated, then you can have just three solar panels with a battery run above air conditioning. It's all electric. So it has a refrigerator, microwave, stove. So a very efficient system. So it's really good for that as well.

Speaker C: I remember standing inside one of your structures in Colorado and thinking how insulated it was. And as you said, as soon as you shut that door, the sound of the show was just gone. You couldn't hear anything. It was really quite incredible. And I remember hearing you say when someone said to me, to you, so what about the interior? How much does that cost? And you said, oh, no. Well, that's all done at the same time. So is that all part of the design process? It all happens, yeah.

Speaker B: Well, among both math, uh, it's done really in the factory interior, really. You can decorate on the interior any way you want. So, you know, the 3D printing process just creates the structure or the module on the inside. It's up to your imagination. It just because it's down in the factory, it's done a lot quicker. You know, just think about it. We're going to have to deliver appliances to the side. We're going to have to deliver air conditioning we talked about. And all the kitchen cabinets are made inside, so subject to customization. Again, um, you can select from what we have, what we offer. We offer a couple lighting options, three or four cabinet options. But if you really want to, um, you know, if you're interior decorator and you have a real, um, you know, I've seen some beautiful eco resorts design great interior designers. So we can pretty much take, you know, take a lead from you. And I mean we're really. The idea was to create a unit that meets any kind of residential or commercial code, just using alternative material on the inside. It can look actually I really think that once they are, because we'll now deliver to six different states. Majority of deliverers are in California, but also live in Colorado, Texas, Georgia, Arkansas, South Carolina. And what we're hearing from people that while the, uh, owner of Operator is really excited about this, many times the people who stay have no idea how it was done. And I think that's already. I mean it can be novelty to begin with, but the ultimate goal is for people just to enjoy their stay. Right. Uh, so we don't need to get in the nitty gritty of how it was made or what was used. It is Especially for resources really are eco conscious. You need to start there. You can start by saying, look, we had no wasted material. They used recycled materials and ah, that could be used for marketing. And it is used for marketing by many people because to really, you know, to really. And you and I know we've stayed in some resorts that, where the eco resort conference itself and uh, if you have a commitment to do it properly, no plastic, you know, uh, it's a little bit of inconvenience, but after about the first night you get used to it. If you need some water, just go down to the waterfall, water bottle filled. So that just goes towards the whole commitment of the resort owner and operator to have something that doesn't damage environment. Actually it actually uses the waste to create something beautiful.

Speaker C: Absolutely. And so the exterior, can you mix it with a paint or a color to allow it to be any color that you choose. So for example, you are quite a branded property and all of your structures are a bit branded. Can you do that or can you?

Speaker B: Yeah, we apply and stain to the unit after it was finished. And the reason is we really achieved two things with the stain is we had fire protection and it's a met stain material, both UV stabilizer because again if you think about plastic phase, right. If you leave motor buggle and sun. So we, we use uh, but the manufacturer work was just all kind of options. So even if you see our units in the wild out there, they already, there are many, many, many, many copies. But you know, so you can have your branded color or you can decide I want to have different colors, you know, just to differentiate a little village or how the units look. So yeah, that's definitely open tool options.

Speaker C: Mhm. Yeah. Because so often people, they want to be different, uh, they want their business to be different and they want people to talk about it. So it's really good if you can give those little nuances, the little differences that people can choose that fits their own palette of their brand and things like that. So I mean that's fantastic. And do you think that printed homes and printed structures, do you think this is a future trend or is this something that you probably are the only one who's actually got the effort and the fire in his belly to make it happen.

Speaker B: Yeah, um, we talked about this before this uh, podcast, you know, when we invented wasn't winning awards. We're just looking for the way to build faster and less expensive. Right. And using less, less waste. But it's been great that we've been recognized now as innovation that's worth paying attention. We received numerous awards in the last. And the reason people starting to pay attention is first of all they look beautiful. Right. You want to recognize something that has nice pictures. But most importantly, the shortage of housing is such a massive problem. We were short for housing to begin with, not only in the US but all over the globe. It's universal. I can land any place in the world and ask, you know, do you have a lot of housing? And there's a answer is always where? Charlotte house. Right. Uh, but with really when people say that, it's not that necessarily people short on housing. It's like people short on affordable housing. Right. There are plenty of mansions that are standing around the world that are, they're empty. You know, people either use them as part time or random. But it's lack of affordable housing. And then, you know, on top of that, you add all of the environmental problems that we've been seeing over the last couple of years. They're just accelerating. You know, uh, whether uh, you want to believe that we have climate crisis or not, you know, there's something that causes just huge disruption, um, of uh, properties here in Los Angeles in January. So just about five months ago, we lost 16,000 structures. $10 billion worth of loss. California, I researched the subject. Over the last 100 years we've had just numerous wildfires, but they're getting worse and worse and they happen more often than more often. But also you see Hawaii lost 2200 bombs the last two years ago. Still have only 20% was being rebuilt. Turkey lost, you know, over 200,000 homes during earthquake. Fraction of that was rebuilt. Yeah, and then you have wars. I mean we're having, we're living in a world where, you know, instead of just losing a couple homes here and there, you know, when this ballistic missiles fly destruction in hundreds of thousands. So we are losing housing at an accelerated pace and we cannot continue to do with rules. Now, uh, look at the lack of innovation construction. You know, hundred years ago there was a carpenter was a hammer and a nail compared to other industry. There was a horse and a butt. A hundred years later, you know, we have electric vehicles and what do we have in construction? Same carpenter, same hammer and nail. So so of all of the industries, and you can point to any other industry, they want to make clothes. 700 years ago people would sell on their shirts and clothes, uh, at home. Now they're factories on and on and on. Any kind of product. We went from kind of doing it at home to using some very probable methods. To using construction. Very little changes. M. So it's on one hand people shouldn't be surprised that things are so expensive because things just have. And now, I mean again when we started the business it was cost time and environmental impact. Now it's tariffs again. Every country by the way has this material that we're using. Second shortage of labor in construction. It kind of was uh, over the years where there's less and less young people who want to go in construction fields because it's hard.

Speaker A: It's hard.

Speaker B: You work in a. In the hot weather and cold weather. So people. Yeah. So you, you've been losing people who want to go in industry. In the United States we have this immigration enforcement now third of construction industry in the US is now going legal labor. So when things were bad to begin with in terms of having enough qualified contractors, we're losing them every day. They're afraid to come to the job site because immigration agents might, might come and snag. So it, it's kind of, if anything is getting worse and, and what this industry response is, I'll just continue to do it the same way. So, so the, the, the change had to happen. We're here to do this.

Speaker C: M. And I love it that it's not just in housing, it's also in recreation and tourism. I love that. And a couple of figures that you said to me before which is this eco friendly method is 70% faster than normal construction or what's considered normal construction and it's 30% cheaper. So it's. You're saving 30% of your build construction budget by going down this non traditional route. I mean that's incredible.

Speaker B: Yeah. You know, and it's achieved in that first day. I mean basically the fact that we can print this module in one day. Look, I, I've been building my whole life. We go from what's required usually take three months to one day. So that's a huge saving. And the same thing in uh, in the cost is from having experienced carpenters with a big crew. Uh, and you really need to be turned because it's critical to do the initial structure correctly. If you don't do that right then you have Wall street that um, don't look right and electric doesn't look right. That first step, ah. Where you need the most experienced, most expensive people. And here it's done with a push of a button, works 24 hours a day, doesn't take lunch, all of those things. So it's both the cost saving and the time saving is achieved in that first moment. And of course designed the same way. We have a lot more flexibility. Rather than wait for months to have a set of plans that can be reviewed and then fixed in the field so often again by Building buildings 35 years. So many contractors are just workers given and redeployments. They take a look at the picture and then they go build it and then you look at the binder. That's not sad. So there is just a lot of additional advantages that are achieved through this process.

Speaker C: And so just to give me an idea of what happens after it's been printed, how does it then get to the site? Because it's printed as a whole thing, isn't it? So it's literally taken from your warehouse and it's transported. How does that work?

Speaker B: Yeah, um, well, actually there are several steps involved. So after it gets pregnant, we really have like a production line here. So first step is we insulate, you know, we fill those voids. Secondly, we put all the wiring and we create, we call channels on the inside. So there is places for electric, mechanical, um, water, plumbing. And then after that's done, then you put, you know, panels that act like drywall. Basically you have walls on the interior and then cabinets are up and then plumbing fixtures arrives and then shower gets finished. So there's really about eight steps from the print to finished product. And then depending on what customers myself allow the resource planting resorts buy from us what we call park models, these are humans that come on wheels in the US A lot of times in the rural areas on campgrounds they have been allowing RVs. So the park model is a human built in accordance with RV standard. And what it really means is the shaft, the trailer meets that standard. On the house itself, it's like what we discussed. So if that's the case, irons are very light and the pickup truck, you don't haul it nearby or across the country. Um, but if you people want to install the same attach to foundation, then it goes on a, on a kind of a flatbed of a truck and, and usually we can fit from two to four different furs depending on the size. And then the truck hauls them around and when they arrive again, if they arrive on wheels, a lot of times it just truck puts it in place so there is nothing required. If it arrives in a flatbed truck, then people either use the crane or again if it's easy to access, you can just pick it up with a, with a little transporter and put it in place. So multiple ways of getting it there. But again they're light. So we've been, I don't know, they remember some pictures of you know, Big Sur. They'll say how did you get it? Well we didn't get it from the front, you know from where there is a clip but from the back along the dirt road we were able to bring it to the side. So again, um, just a lot of the advantages, you know. Interestingly uh, when we were designing this we were just thinking of smaller affordable home. First client who came and bought our unit, there are two guys pulled up on Harley Davidson's and they had division and I just said what are you tell me what are you getting this for? And this is for glamping resort. So I quietly pulled my phone under table to look up what glamping means. That is what's unique about our prime look. This is my first startup and um, in previous ones I always had an idea. Uh, I built it and then I want to sell it with Azure. What has happened was we created our first prototype and posted on Facebook and people have their own ideas. I mean we just could never imagine this kind of use or uh, you know again we're thinking of affordable housing but couple contracts to sign this week, I mean last week was to rebuild some luxury homes or lost the fire so you can use it for that. Uh, we signed a couple contracts in the last two months to do housing for the homeless. Again there are much smaller units, they're much more rudimentary, I mean a lot of less glass. But counties and say we have tremendous homeless cris all over the world in particular in California and so two communities uh, not far from us here are gonna uh. One of the beauty is that they picked up these communities are pretty high end so the residents didn't want to see the ugly kind of tents or this metal buildings so they, they can have something and they really serious affordable housing does not need to exempt and so it was totally acceptable to them to have housing for the unhoused. And again they're seeing this because it is so much less expensive and traditional method. Now they have more money for rehab and vocational training. So they're just thinking about this for three years. So one community M says buying it instead of building foundation we created this bolt. We can just bolt it into the parking lot. It's going to be a parkland hospital and then three years later it can be recycled. I mean that's another beauty. Our product has a true ability to just uh, to recycle it once it's yours and create something else. And another community is taking everyone's wheels. It's going to be very easy to install both of these projects. They just picked us. They'll be installed and occupied before the end of the year. So the speed really matters when somebody has something that's. And it's true for the rebuilding from natural disasters. So we talked about all this, homes lost or fires. And some homeowners are putting up their land for sale because they've been kind of psyched out by contractors of how much it would cost to rebuild. And so they're saying, well, we're underinsured because their insurance proceeds are not able to do, uh, to have the rebuild. And so this, both of those contracts were brought to us by general contractor who took the challenge. And so tell me how much you're getting from insurance. Let me figure out the way to build it less expensive and faster. And people will lose tremendous amount of equity in their home and they just sell the land. So rebuilding it is again, based on experience that I've lived through wildfire myself in Malibu here some six years ago. So people who rebuilt, their volumes actually increased because they now built modern home, current standards with you still the same, still beautiful. The people who lost Oreo, who lost generational wealth because they were psyched out by contractors who said, oh, this wouldn't cost you a fortune. So there are a lot of other benefits of what we do. Makes me feel good.

Speaker C: Absolutely. And I think it should do, I mean, just very. The recycling aspect there, that you can build something, you can recycle it and build something else. I mean, that's just incredible.

Speaker B: That's the definition of circular economy. Circular economy is using a product that can be used for its useful life and then, um, using it for something else. And we're able to achieve this with this product.

Speaker C: There's very, very few products that actually can do that in construction that I'm aware of. In fact, I think I'm. I'm only aware of yours as a full structure, a livable structure. And you were. Your, your efforts were recognized recently when you. Well, uh, by the Oprah Winfrey show, no less, when you helped to resettle 6,000 refugees from Eastern Europe to the US and give them housing through your products. I mean, how did that come about?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's actually happened quite a bit, quite a long time ago. And it happened fair enough. For Kangelos Country. Um, yeah, I was an apartment developer, so I've always been on housing. So I had the yachts and my family didn't care. I came Here as a refugee. We actually I'm from originally from Ukraine but on the way here spent some time in Italy waiting for our papers to come through and didn't care for how the resettlement effort was done here. You know, we were, we were almost guiding towards financial assistance from the state and federal and my dad didn't want to have anything to lose it. So we kind of spun off from that effort and just went about the wrong way. You know it forced my brother and I to get a real estate licenses. Uh, my dad started a business. So. So you know, when, when I uh, moved to Atlanta after, after college I kind of followed my dad's vision and I started an effort in Atlanta and we said look, all of this, the directing of people towards public assistance is not the way. It's just circles be much better to raise privately money. I had apartments and friends from well, furniture stores and people with money wrote checks. So it basically raised a lot of money. And we decided to handle a resettlement was instead of having a paid staff handling. We actually matched every family that was coming with a family here in the states that were willing to provide the um. We basically I raised money to provide financial assistance for 90 days. That was our plan. 90 days. All you need to do is worry about learning English, learning how to drive a car, you know, have some vocational training. If you were a doctor you might start as a nurse. If you're an engineer you might start in the draftsman. Long and long on. There are many ways but more the most important part of that was having a family who cared. You're handling your family. M could take kids to a doctor, help them find school, help them take to initial interview. The goal was in 90 days they wouldn't help them get a job. They don't need any assistance. And if they have some connections to the community. So did this in Atlanta and then went around the southeast of the country and help other communities try to organize the same programs. And again, you know, it was not a grand vision. It was like that's what I would. Yeah, that's what I would have appreciated when we came here.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: And take it to scale this way. We resemble 6,000 refugees, one of the most successful. Literally over 90, 99% of the people did become financially independent after 90 days. Only people who are elderly or had disabilities here couldn't, couldn't do that. But vast majority of people were coming, loved it. And I traveled, I brought during that process I brought rest of my family from former Soviet Union, from Ukraine, from Russia and I Was just there last December, walking through the mall, and people recognized. Recognized me. Uh, and, um, grateful. And I said, really, you're welcome. But it wasn't something. It wasn't something that I did because I was looking for things. I just felt that that's the right way to do it. This is a method to this difficult problem. Yeah. And just made sense from living in myself. So m. So that. That was that story.

Speaker C: It felt right to you. And it's, as you said, it was the way you wanted to be treated when you came into the country. And I think that's really commendable and fantastic. And actually, we need more people like you that can help integrate, you know, different people, different nationalities with different needs.

Speaker B: So I think you almost look at any crisis we have. It's like, uh, the if initiative comes from people who live the experience. That's when I, you know, anytime we as, uh, a society try to, um, force people to do certain things, it just doesn't work, you know, so. So it's really. Again, it's not that this is like a unique thing. Uh, you look at any situation, be it homelessness, be it, you know, we'll lose thousands of homes to buyers. It doesn't require a massive think tank effort. It just requires people who live through it and care and just do it. So it really. It wasn't me thinking, how do I get in the war? It was like, this is what I would do, you know?

Speaker C: Absolutely. But I agree with you, however, you do need to have the feedback from people who've lived it so they can say what needed to happen instead. That would be better. But you still need the visionaries to be able to turn that into action and to make that into something that will work, because not everyone can turn that feedback into action. So I think you're obviously a visionary, as we can tell by the fact that you've got the business that you've got. But I've got to ask you the question. I mean, obviously you're based in the US and you've got facilities over there. Do you have anything in Europe?

Speaker B: Not yet, but my business partner and I are both European. So my business partner, Ross McGuire, is from. From. Okay. From London. And of course I'm Ukrainian. So we have a lot of friends, family, and connections to Europe. And quite honestly, 3D printing industry came from Europe. So we envision coming to Europe this year, and next year we are focusing on expansion in the U.S. but in, uh, 2027, we envision setting up countries around the globe. Um, you Know, even during the Eco Reserve meeting in Greece, I've talked to a number of people who'd like to bring it to their home countries. I follow that metric to Dubai and Dubai is committed to have 25% of their structures 3D planned by 2030. So people around the world are thinking about it. And then we get a bunch of inquiries from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, I mean any country that accepted a lot of immigrants over the last day, the other two is short on housing. This drove Europe and all the other places. So we envision evolving us. All of our factories are going to be owned, operated by ourselves as we move international expansion. We need local partners and really setting up a JV where local partner can on one hand bring capital to set up a facility like what we need. But while we can set up a manufacturing process and we have a uh, the formula, the material formula is our trade secret. That is you know how Coca Cola never patented their formula?

Speaker C: Yeah, it's a little bit.

Speaker B: The formula is what is. And we're on the fourth formula in three years that is you know, uh, going from construction to 3D printing. I never thought that would be in material science. That's kind of where we are. So we can manufacture and we can develop the material but we need local partners, just like in Coco example who can sell and distribute and install. So from companies who are in construction or companies who are in distribution, those are the kind of partners that we have. And of course capital, you know the capital that makes the most sense is to have governments provide that because if the government wants to have more affordable housing. So our second company is opening later this year in Colorado, not far away from where I say is being held there. Um, but it's a state that providing 80% of the funding there because they want to have more affordable housing and a lot more affordable from engine. What happens is when you have a partner with the government, then they help you with adjusting their building codes to meet what you need. They also know who is looking to develop affordable housing. So they're really helping ah you with supply and sales. So having that kind of source makes a lot of sense.

Speaker C: I'm sitting well up. There's an opportunity right there for someone in construction who's been listening in. So I think that's a fantastic way to end if somebody wants to get in touch with you, if they want to find out more. How do they do that?

Speaker B: Sure, the best way is probably LinkedIn and pretty active on LinkedIn. I'm the only Gael and all of or by email and we're also on Azure Print Homes. It's on Instagram, Facebook, so multiple ways and just either by my name or by the name of the company you can find us.

Speaker C: And I will include all the links and the email and everything else in the show notes. So if anybody wants to reach out, it's really easy just to click through from there. So thank you so much, Jean, for today. Really great to see you again. I absolutely wish you the best for this. I think it's inspired, unique, and I love those things, especially when they bring a bit of good to the world. So thank you so much for all that you do.

Speaker B: Dara, Sarah, thanks for the time and for pushing this forward. So take care. Have a great rest of the week.

Speaker C: You too. See you soon.

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