In a first, French family moves into 3D-printed house

The 3D-printed houses have been in the news for quite a while, but now a family has become the first one in the world to actually shift in one of these houses.

In a first, a family in France has become the first one to move into an actual four-bedroom 3D-printed prototype house. The house is a prototype for larger projects aimed to make house-building quick and cheap.

The environmental friendly house took 54 hours to print, with additional four months for contractors to include things such as windows, doors and roof. It has curved walls in order to protect ancient trees, cut down effects of humidity and contains digital controls for disabled people with wheelchair access and ability to control everything from a smartphone.

World’s first 3D-printed houses will be ready to live in by 2019

The 1,022ft square house features four bedrooms with a big central space, able to accommodate a family of five. For creating the thick, durable walls, the 3D printer was used to print layers from the floors upwards.

As per BBC News, costing around £176,000, the house is 20% cheap than a similar construction. With this house already printed, the team hopes that they can print the same house again in 33 hours only. The house is built in collaboration between the city council, University of Nantes, and a housing association.

The purpose of the project was to check if this type of construction can become common for housing, and if similar techniques can be applied to other communal building like sports halls, as per the council’s lead innovator Francky Tricket. He believes that this housing method will disrupt the construction industry.

“For 2,000 years there hasn’t been a change in the paradigm of the construction process. We wanted to sweep this whole construction process away. That’s why I’m saying that we’re at the start of a story. We’ve just written, ‘Once upon a time’.” And their work will ‘force’ private companies to ‘take the pen’ and continue the narrative, he says.

The project head Benoit Furet now wants to create a suburban neighborhood and is already working on a project to build 18 houses in Paris, and a commercial building. He believes that within five years, the cost would be reduced by 25% and by 40% in the next 10 to 15 years.