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This family just moved in to a 3D-printed home

Can a 3D printer make a house a home?

Kaitlin Benz Editorial Summer Intern 2018 / News
3d-printed-home-screenshot-bbc

Nordine and Nouria Ramdani. 

Screenshot by CNET / BBC video

France is famous for its wine, cheese and two-week bicycle race. Now, it's going to be known for shaking up the construction industry with 3D-printed houses.

Nordine and Nouria Ramdani, as well as their three children, moved in to 1,022-square-foot, four-bedroom house on June 29, according to Ouest France. The Ramdanis moved in after two other families reportedly declined offers to live in the house.

The project was a collaboration involving the Nantes, France city council, a housing association and the University of Nantes.

The house cost $207,000 (£176,000) to build and required a scant 54 hours to print, according to BBC News. Builders needed another four months to add windows, doors and a roof. 

The BBC estimated that a home built with conventional construction techniques would have cost about 20 percent more.

This video shows how the 3D printing process works:

Printing a home gives architects greater creative freedom since it lets them use free-flowing shapes in their design, Benoit Furet, a professor at the University of Nantes who spearheaded the project, told the BBC. The home in Nantes, for example, was built to curve around a 100-year-old tree on the property. The house is also environmentally friendly because the building process doesn't create as much waste as conventional construction processes produce.

Furet is working on a project to 3D-print 18 houses in Paris, as well as a 7,500-square-foot commercial building.