The "The Future Of Housing In A Technological World" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Visiting a website that I knew years ago would eventually offer something to the general public that would have a big impact on housing.   Today the website shows affordable houses that have been made with the use of a 3D printer.  It was five years ago that I wrote a story telling of my visit to the high school where I taught for over 30 years.  I had found that they had a 3D printer and was excited to see how it worked.  They used a CAD (Computer Aided Design) program to print a small car on their new 3D printer.  Wow!  It was so interesting watching the students program the computer and print the car which to them was no big deal.  What a difference it is for someone who has grown up in a high tech society such as they have compared to me whose biggest technological item while growing up was a transistor radio.  Well, today, as I looked at page after page of 3D printed houses on my computer I said to myself, "I knew it was going to happen someday."  But, I wasn't sure if it would be in my lifetime.   Well, either I have lived a lot longer than I thought I would or technology is progressing at a rate I never thought possible.  Can you imagine making a house on a printer that you can live in!  I'm not sure, even after seeing it, that I really believe it has happened.  And, the houses that I'm looking at are remarkable.  One is a two-story villa that was printed on-site and was 400-square meters in size that only took 45 days to print.  I'm not sure how long they may last in comparison to traditional construction, but its certainly a start.  Following are a few of the homes I viewed and a small story about each one.

• A 3D home in Amsterdam, Netherlands.  It is 8 square meters in floor space and is 25 cubic meters in volume.  It is referred to as an Urban Cabin which is part of a research project that focused on compact and sustainable housing in urban environments.  It is printed using sustainable bio-plastic materials.
  
   
• A 3D home in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.  It is 240-square meters and was designed as a printed office.  This "Office of the Future" is a fully functional building featuring electricity, water, and telecommunications as well as air-conditioning.  It was printed in Shanghai, China and then shipped to Dubai.  The reason for doing that was to cut costs on labor.
  
• A 3D printed house in Russia which is 38 square meters or 400 square feet.  The home was printed onsite with concrete material.  It took about 24 hours to print.  It is made using a mixture of solid elements and liquid polyurethane.  It then was painted yellow.  It cost $10,134 to create.  Would be great for low-income housing.
  
• This is a 3D printed two-story villa that was printed on-site in China.  The entire 400-square meter villa took only 45 days to print.  It is printed concrete over the framing material.  The walls are made with printed concrete measuring 250mm in thickness.  
  
• This impressive building was printed in Province Jiangsu, China and is 1,100 square meters.  I was impressed when I read it was constructed in 2014.  The structural components were 3D printed off-site and moved to this location.  Recyclable waste with a hardening agent was used for this project.  That's just amazing to me!
  
• 3D printed house that was 2,400 square feet and printed in New York.  This estate is built with the help of Italian 3D printing pioneer Enrico Dini.  The property also has a swimming pool, jacuzzi and a garage.  The printing process begins by collecting sand, dust and gravel which are mixed with a magnesium-based binding agent to concoct a printable material.  The printer could make 6x6 meter cubes.  
  
• This 3D 600-800 square foot home is in Chattanooga, Tennessee.  The 28 different panels were printed off-site and assembled to create two exterior walls, roof and interior.   
  

The buildings posted here were printed by use of a program on a computer.  Just blows my mind what is happening through technology today.  It seems that anything can be done by using technology.  If only we could return to 2018 in a century see what has been done since then through technology.  Don't you just love it!  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.