How We Can Now Download Our Houses

On a busy night of searching for research topic inspirations for an architectural major subject, I have stumbled upon an interesting topic being discussed in a YouTube video. The video was a part of a TED Talks program in which, if one is not familiar with it, a person, not necessarily remarkable, decides to share his/her remarkable idea in front of an audience. Thus, TED Talks is a program spreading “ideas worth spreading.”

This particular talk features the designer, Alastair Parvin.  While this profoundly named fellow is educated with a degree in architecture, his line of work delves deeper into the realm of design and idea-formulating, transcending architecture as a field of infrastructure. His view of design generally describes the act of simply forming ideas for several types of problems.

Aptly named “architecture for the people by the people,” his talk on architecture concerns much less about professional architects and more on just everybody else.

In order to understand what his main idea is, one has to be familiar with certain key innovations such as the 3D printer which, if one is not familiar with it, is basically a printer which can create 3D objects in the medium of a plastic not different from what Lego blocks are made of; and the CNC cutting machine which is a machine that can cut out predetermined shapes from wooden panels.

He is part of a project known as WikiHouse, which is an open source place online where people can upload and share designed 3D models of house parts, which other people can download, open and print in their own 3D printers and CNC cutters. This leaves them with sort of like a giant IKEA kit in which they assemble to create whole houses or parts of houses with no professional help. Now if you want a new door, you can find one on the Internet, download it and have it printed for your house! You can literally print a friend a new window frame you found online.

Parvin says that as the 20^th Century brought in the industrial revolution of mass production, this 21st Century idea may bring about the democratization of production. This democratization of production allows for us, the unlicensed, common people usually viewed as consumers to now be the producers and our backyards, the industrial factory. People, welcome to the future of DIY.

TLDR: Instead of having me talk about his idea, why don’t you hear him share it to you himself? He sounds much more exciting than I do! Just click on this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlt6kaNjoeI

Post-Script: If this idea goes off well, our next issue would probably be how we could get our hands on a 3D printer or a CNC.