Dutch architects say 3D print technology could solve the world's housing problems

3D printers can create almost anything these days, from eyeglasses and coffee mugs to working handguns. But now architects in Amsterdam are dreaming bigger. Much bigger.

Two Dutch architecture firms, DUS Architects and Universe Architecture, are each hoping to be the first to print the world's first full-scale, inhabitable house.

"It's kind of Lego for adults," says Hans Vermeulen, one of three architects at DUS. But his plan is not child's play. He wants to print, piece by piece, a classic Dutch canal house, which will become an information center for 3D printing.

To do this, DUS has built its own 3D printer. They call it the "KamerMaker," or "Room Builder."

At six meters-tall, the shiny metal machine is one of the largest 3D printers in the world - it's nearly large enough to print an entire room. The KamerMaker sits in a garden outside the DUS office building, where dozens of tourists stop every day to watch it in action.

While 3D printing has been around since the 1980's, the technology has only recently been introduced to the field of architecture.

DUS began using a much smaller 3D printer five years ago to create models of its designs. Then last March the firm had an idea.

"We thought, OK, we are architects, we have to build a big one if we want to print a house," says Vermeulen.

Just like its smaller cousins, the KamerMaker can be programmed with a digital blueprint of a three dimensional object. It uses these instructions to print - horizontally and vertically - the programmed object.

Layer by layer

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Dutch architects say 3D print technology could solve the world's housing problems