A professor at the University of Southern California's School of Engineering has developed a gigantic 3D printer that he says can build a 2,500-square-foot custom home in 20 hours-albeit one with tile flooring. But, as Behrokh Khoshnevis told CBS Los Angeles, the printer's primary purpose would be to aid in humanitarian projects in the wake of natural disasters. "My true hope is that this technology gets to be used worldwide," he said about the printer, which reportedly "lays concrete and interlocking steel bars to frame the structure and can build a multi-story home equipped with plumbing, electrical work and tile flooring."
A professor at the University of Southern California's School of Engineering has developed a gigantic 3D printer that he says can build a 2,500-square-foot custom home in 20 hours-albeit one with tile flooring. But, as Behrokh Khoshnevis told CBS Los Angeles, the printer's primary purpose would be to aid in humanitarian projects in the wake of natural disasters. "My true hope is that this technology gets to be used worldwide," he said about the printer, which reportedly "lays concrete and interlocking steel bars to frame the structure and can build a multi-story home equipped with plumbing, electrical work and tile flooring."
Investors are still needed to make the technology a commercial reality, but Forbes.com contributor Richard Green wrote earlier this month: "This could be an enormous boon, not just because it would allow poor countries to provide their people housing more cheaply, but because it could improve quality control for housing in areas where currently buildings are falling down too often. Will this change be disruptive? Of course. But if it can produce safe housing inexpensively, it could raise living standards for billions of people around the world."
Here's a news report on it from Los Angeles' KCBS:
And to see the original TED talk from the professor, click here.
