Dive Brief:

An Italian engineering company, World’s Advanced Saving Project (WASP), has built a 40-foot-tall 3-D printer with the goal of creating housing quickly and efficiently

The printer, named Big Delta, uses local, eco-friendly materials like clay or dirt and, according to WASP, could provide quality housing in developing or disaster areas.

WASP’s hope is that its printer will be able to build a house from the ground up, layer upon layer, by dispensing material, like clay, through a large nozzle in a pre-defined pattern.

Dive Insight:

Affordable housing is a global issue, and, according to Tech Insider, rapid urbanization and poor planning will only make it worse, leaving an entry point for the affordable, solidly constructed housing WASP is planning with Big Delta.

WASP will debut the 3-D printer prototype over the weekend during an event in Italy, when it plans to demonstrate the product's ability to build a house.

Other construction-related 3-D printing projects are underway in Amsterdam and China, but both are also still in the experimental stages.

While Big Delta and similar 3-D printing projects are still in early stages, they have the potential open the door to a new method of construction.