By Michael Cowan | BBC
A family in France has become the first in the world to move into a 3D-printed house. The four-bedroom property is a prototype for bigger projects aiming to make housebuilding quicker and cheaper. Could it cause a shift in the building industry?
With curved walls designed to reduce the effects of humidity and digital controls for disabled people, this house could be an expensive realisation of an architect’s vision.
But having taken 54 hours to print – with four more months for contractors to add in things such as windows, doors and the roof – its cost of around £176,000 to build makes it 20% cheaper than an identical construction using more traditional solutions.
The team now believe they could print the same house again in only 33 hours.