Giant 40-Foot 3D Printer Will Print Affordable Houses from Clay

The world will need an estimated 100,000 new homes in the next 15 years to meet the world’s growing population according to the United Nations.

To help meet the need for affordable housing, WASP has designed a giant 40-foot tall 3D printer that can print entire houses with locally available material.

According to Digital Trends, the giant 3D printer, dubbed “Big Delta” was purpose built to be used in areas with limited resources and possibly disaster relief.

“The main goal is to use the Big Delta to build extremely low-cost housing,” Digital Trends reported. “To do this, WASP outfitted the printer to use local materials such as dirt or clay, and built it to function using less than 100 watts of power. With a strong, 20-foot-wide metal body and a printing nozzle which doubles as a materials mixer, WASP’s latest endeavor is an absolute mammoth. Considering these characteristics, Big Delta appears especially valuable in providing quick relief to areas hit by devastating natural disasters.”

The giant printer, which is seen in prototype in the video above, is set to be unveiled this weekend in Italy, which is when the world will get to see for the first time just how well Big Delta works.