Japan Is 3D Printing Houses in 3 Days for 3 Million Yen Each

This November, Japanese architecture startup Serendix is introducing a new kind of house to the Japanese market, and it doesn't look much like the kominka of old ー or even like most modern Japanese architecture, for that matter. Announced on Twitter by Serendix CEO Kunihiro Handa, the company will begin 3D printing their uniquely designed homes by the middle of the month, and will soon be selling them for personal use.

These unusual "houses" are something near spherical, although it's not entirely clear what to call these unique shapes, and the floor area of each structure is less than 10㎡ (about 108 ft²), making them exempt from the regulations of Japan's Building Standards Act. But there are clearly some appeals for buyers interested in going the tiny house route. The houses can be completed using a 3D printer in just three days, and construction costs only total about 3 million yen ー just over 26,000 USD at the current exchange rate. Of course, any electrical instillation still has to be done by hand by an electrician, and the land where the house will sit is the responsibility of the buyer, but you're not likely to find a custom built house that will just about appear out of nowhere much quicker than three days.

This tiny house is just that ー one small room, made at a scale that is something of a one-person trial size. But Japan's architects have dreams of expanding the idea, literally. These days, Japanese home loans are generally paid back over the course of about 30 years, but some in the home building business have dreams of harnessing the power of 3D printing to bring down the costs of labor, logistics, and building materials. Someday, they hope, these advancements might bring down costs enough to make loans easily paid over the course of just 5 years, or even zero. Where will these ideas go in the coming years? Well, with these tiny houses only hitting the market this month, it's hard to tell ー  but we're interested to find out.

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