Building houses on site with Contour Crafting

A longer animation on automated reinforcement, automated plumbing, automated electrical network installation.

3D printing techniques will be used to construct buildings, here and in outer space.

3D printing techniques will be used to construct buildings, here and in outer space.

An article by Lucas Mearian about Contour Crafting and also using Contour Crafting in outer space.

As the previous post mentioned, there were a project supported NASA that use the in situ material to build a lunar structure. Now, besides Moon, there will be also a project at Mars. However, as they developing the Contour Crafting in these 2 planets, they face a problem. Due to the thin atmosphere on Mars and the lack of thereof on Moon, water would evaporate from the cement or concrete, leaving it to return to its origin of dust and rocks. 

Contour Crafting: Automated Construction: Behrokh Khoshnevis at TEDxOjai

A video presentation by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis at TEDxOjai, 2012.

The presentation is about an analysis by psychologists identified the pyramid of human needs which situated at the bottom of the pyramid are food and shelter. From there, Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis analysed the condition of shelter at the 21st century and found the problems-the current construction methods and propose the solution to change the situation-Contour Crafting.

The presentation also shows the concept of Contour Crafting and the works can be done during the process such as automated reinforcement, automated plumbing, automated electrical network installation through animation video. Architectures often limit themselves because of the construction, however with Contour Crafting, architectures can design more aesthetically. Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis also talked about the current project that use the in situ material to build a lunar structure which is supported by NASA.

The advancement of technology is truly admirable. Who could actually thought that we could build our house by printing? Now as the technology is getting more and more advance, people are started to feel insecure because it might take away the job opportunity for them. So will people accept this technology or not? 

Emily Pilloton's blog

Robo-builder launching in California.
A blog regarding Contour Crafting by Ms Emily at year 2007. Because it is a new technology and it is not being develop yet, therefore there are some of the negative feedback during that time such as the reinforcement bar, plumbing and electrical. However, as time passed away, those negative feedback are being answered during the presentation at TEDxOjai at year 2012.

Contour crafting

"In the future, we will print our houses."

Yes you heard it right! Our houses will be printed out in the future instead of using the concrete, brick, limestone etc. A research has been done by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis from the University of Southern California and a new layered fabrication technology-Contour Crafting has been developed.

As the technology keeps improving, people tend to live a better lifestyle so they move to the mega city. That causes the high demand of houses. If the demands increases and supply remains unchanged, there will be a shortage occurs which lead to a higher equilibrium price. Therefore everything needs to be fast in order to solve the problem of shortage. With the construction technology nowadays, the time needed to build a house is questionable because it concerns of size of the house, human labor, weather, etc. To conclude about it, it takes time to completely build a house. However, if Contour Crafting is being implement in the construction field, it definitely save a lot of time because it can print a house per day.

Now, what is the level of acceptance of the people towards this Contour Crafting? Yes, Contour Crafting is a new technology and it helps us a lot but what people think about it? This is the question that I am going to find out through this dissertation research project. My objectives for this dissertation research project is to explore this new technology that might be implement in our future and also to verify the effectiveness of Contour Crafting. Other than that, I can also study the evolution of construction from the history until now.