Family becomes the first in the world to move into a 3D-printed house

With curved walls designed to reduce the effects of humidity and digital controls for disabled people, this house could be a glimpse into the future.

The 95m (1022ft) square house was built in a deprived neighbourhood in France for a family of five with four bedrooms and a big central space in Nantes. It is a collaboration between the city council, a housing association and University of Nantes.


It's costs of £176,000 to build makes it 20% cheaper than an identical construction using more traditional solutions. The home took about 54 hours to print and four more months for contractors to add in things such as windows, doors and the roof. The team believes they could print the same house again in only 33 hours.

Francky Trichet, the council's lead on technology and innovation, says the purpose of the project was to see whether this type of construction could become mainstream.

The house was designed in a studio by a team of architects, then programmed into a 3D printer.

The printer is then brought to the site of the home. Each wall consists of two layers of the insulator polyurethane. The printer works by printing in layers from down upwards and a space in-between is left within the wall, which is then filled with cement. The windows, doors, and roof are then added to complate the house.