Via contourcrafting.org

How long will it be before builders and developers are using large-scale 3D printers to build communities and condos? Looks like it might happen sooner than we think!

The concept behind 3D printing a home

Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California (USC) is the inventor of contour crafting. We’ll explain what that is soon. The important part is that he believes his design for a large-scale 3D printer could print a two-storey, 2,500 square foot home in less than 24 hours.

According to Khoshnevis, the foundation of the homes would have to be completed before a printer was constructed onsite, but once everything was set up, the rest of the process would be automated. Imagine watching a 100-unit community get built in a couple months (assuming there’s more than one printer at work).

What’s contour crafting?

USC has a website that explains everything there is to know about contour crafting. Basically, it’s “a fabrication process by which large-scale parts can be fabricated quickly in a layer-by-layer fashion.”

Contour crafting was originally designed to produce molds for industrial parts, but apparently, “various entities” in the construction business have been looking into how to apply the technology to disaster relief and low-income housing. USC is doing all the research on applying this method to the production of “modern civil structures” (in other words...homes). For the printing of homes, concrete would be the main material used.

Will we see 3D printed homes in the GTA?

Do you think that GTA communities will soon be built using this method? How about a downtown condo?

Apparently, Khoshnevis’ designs have caught NASA’s attention. They have given him a grant to experiment with producing lunar structures and even buildings for Mars!

If there are already plans to use this technology on other planets...we can probably expect to see it in action on Earth sometime soon!