Your Dream House: Design it, Print it, Move in.
From doll houses to tree houses, housing prices are going up again, and while that's good news for real estate investors, it may not sound so good to those hoping to buy or build their dream house soon.
But fear not, because thanks to technology, your dream house, with all its intricate designs, may soon be easier and faster to build and buy than ever before.
Suppose you're building a 2,500-square-foot house. The cost and time to build that house will vary by region. According to the U.S. Census Bureau it takes six months on average to build a house in the United States. Let's say you're building that house in the South, where the average construction time is about 5.5 months, three months faster than in the Northeast.
Sounds great, huh? But what if we told you that same house could potentially be built in 24 hours? Yes, you read correctly. Less than 24 hours.
Thanks to the hard work and research of scientists and engineers, the construction industry may be on the brink of allowing you to design and then literally print your dream home.
University of Southern California Professor Behrokh Khoshnevis developed Contour Crafting, a technology that allows for the construction of large-scale 3D objects, layer by layer, from the bottom up.
In simpler terms, it's a kind of 3D printer robot that can turn digital structural designs into real life structures in record time. It's something out of a movie - except this is really true.
We had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Khoshnevis about some of the prospects and concerns of this technology. An advantage is that it would cut waste, labor time, and man power, therefore making it more time and cost effective.
But that also raises a major concern that if this technology is largely adopted by the construction industry, it would put many people out of work. Dr. Khoshnevis says that's not necessarily true. His technology is concrete based, but many people still prefer to use other materials to build.
He also says it would allow older workers and women who may not have the strength to work normal construction jobs to stay working longer.
Another major prospect Dr. Khoshnevis points out is the possibility of using this technology to build houses in disaster zones, refugee camps, and low income neighborhoods and slums around the world.
If you're reading this and thinking designing and printing your house sounds crazy and surreal, get ready for this: Dr. Khoshnevis has his eyes on the moon... and Mars.
Yes. You read right again. Contour Crafting has caught the attention of NASA, which is investing in research and the technology to explore the possibility of building habitats in outer space.
You may want to consider buying some real estate space on the moon or Mars before they become the hip neighborhoods where all the cool kids live.