Living in a 3D Printed World

I imagine you’ve seen small 3D printers that can make items you can hold in your hand. Some companies have explored printing components for electric cars, along with various other consumer goods, even food! But what about a 12 meter tall printer that can print a small house? You can check out some videos of early prototypes of relatively crude small structures. As one would expect, China and Europe are ahead of the curve and are investing in this technology.

In fact, an Italian company, WASP, has been looking at printing small structures as a strategy to help out in disaster relief. One of their potential projects includes printing an entire village in Italy in Massa Lombarda, east of Bologna as a demonstration for low income housing made from recycled and sustainable materials. If the Italians do it, you know it will look cool. Along this same theme, check out the Winsun Company in China that can print 10 houses a day. That said, the Chinese idea of a house may not go over well in the U.S., but can you imagine what this technology could have meant to folks in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina?

Photo credit: Creative Commons

As this technology improves, and it is clearly very portable, the implications for disaster relief could be staggering. No more tent cities, just small sturdy structures that could turn into more permanent housing given the existing substandard construction quality found in many of the poor neighborhoods in third world countries. Imagine urban planners working with disaster relief agencies creating new, sustainable towns in conjunction with construction companies that can print almost anything, anywhere in the world. One can imagine many urban renewal projects in low lying coastal cities as sea level rise impacts third world countries. Maybe architectural schools should consider starting degree programs to deal with this inevitable eventuality – urban planners that literally print their solutions.

But what about the industrialized West? Image how successful Habitat 67 in Montreal would have been if it were 3D printed and could have been replicated at a fraction of the original cost. I, for one, would have bought a unit. What will this technology mean for the housing and the construction industry as a whole in the industrialized world? In Dubai they are already pre-fabricating components of buildings with 3D printing technology and expect to have 25% of all new construction produced this way by 2030. How much of your latest building project is 3D printed? I would venture a guess that here in the U.S., not much at all, yet.

This could also bring a new twist to the notion of design build. Architects, with portable printers operating out of the back of 16 wheelers that not only design your house, but print it as well. Farfetched? Probably, one can imagine that you would still need an electrician and plumber and windows and kitchen appliances and so forth. Nonetheless, in the not too distant future, you should be able to print a large portion of your or someone else’s home.

What else could you print or partially print? All of your appliances, the furniture, your electric car, maybe even an artificial pet dog? What about clothes, carpets, bed linen? And what about food, is that really a thing?

Photo credit: Creative Commons

One could imagine that all you would need is the correct ‘goop’ to feed into your printer and you are off to the races. No need to go to the mall, no need to go online to shop, maybe no need to leave the house, if you work from home? Then again, maybe that’s not such a so pretty picture of the future. Regardless, the future is coming and, who knows, we could all be living in a 3D printed world someday.