House Being Built with 3-D Printer

You know about 3D printing, right?  Supposed to be the future way that parts for almost everything will soon be made. Well, some folks in Amsterdam have taken it a step further - they're building a house.  Yup. Dutch architects are now building a full size house using a 20-foot-tall 3D printer.   The project, known simply as the "3D Print Canal House," uses a super-sized version of the popular in-home 3D printer made by Ultimaker. Dutch architectural firm Dus commissioned the machine when it decided to take the scale-model rooms it was already 3D-printing and turn them into the real thing.  The printer is called KamerMaker, which means "room builder," and that's exactly what it does -- construct a series of rooms that can be basically snapped together to form an entire house.  Thus far, the printer has produced a corner of the house with a partial staircase attached. The piece weighed about 400 pounds. The building blocks that are currently being produced, and take about a week each to print, have a honeycombed internal structure that will eventually be filled with a foam that reaches a concrete-like hardness, lending support and weight to the finished house.  The architects see multiple benefits to 3D-printing a house, aside from the possibilities of near-limitless customization. "For the first time in history, over half of the world's population is living in cities," Vermeulen said. "We need a rapid building technique to keep up the pace with the growth of the megacities. And we think 3D printing can be that technique."  Wait a go, guys!