Printable houses are coming April 11, 2012 The first “printed
homes” will be coming soon, says World Future Society blogger
Thomas Frey. One construction technology that has great
potential for low-cost, customized buildings is “contour
crafting — a form of 3D printing that uses robotic arms and
nozzles to squeeze out layers of concrete or other materials,
moving back and forth over a set path to fabricate a large
component. Structures would be quicker to make, reducing energy
and emissions. Using a quick-setting, concrete-like material,
contour crafting forms the house’s walls layer by layer until
topped off by floors and ceilings that are set into place by the
crane. Other far-reaching opportunities include constructing
rapid shelters after natural disasters, operational structures
on the moon out of moon dust, and cheap houses for people in
impoverished countries. A natural extension of printing new
buildings will be devices that recycle the old ones. Ideally,
the old material will be ground up and reformu