Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California has won Grand Prize in the NASA Tech Briefs magazine’s “Create the Future” contest for his entry, "Robotic Building Construction by Contour Crafting.” The revolutionary construction method was awarded for being a “major innovation” that could potentially 3D print entire neighborhoods in half the time and at 30 percent less cost than traditional building methods.
Though some have visions of using Contour Crafting (CC) to sculpt the moon's first settlements, Khoshnevis primary desire is combat the world's housing shortage by using the automated construction method to rapidly deploy housing in impoverished and disaster areas.
More information and an interview with Khoshnevis on CNN, after the break.
“Contour Crafting is a major innovation that automates the construction of whole structures; and radically reduces the time and cost of construction. The result would be a revolution in the construction industry that would lead to affordable construction of high quality low-income housing; the rapid construction of emergency shelters and on-demand housing in response to disasters. Contour Crafting is the first and only large-scale 3D printing technology that can rapidly construct complete buildings.”
Khoshnevis will receive a $20,000 prize to further develop his concept. You can learn more about Contour Crafting by watching Khoshnevis’ TED Talk.
TEDxTalk: Contour Crafting: Automated Construction / Behrokh Khoshnevis
