Could Woodbury University students' 3D-printed home be a solution to LA's housing crisis?

Architecture students at Woodbury University are doing what was once impossible: printing three-dimensional houses.

With half the workload, these students designed a sustainable and possible solution to Los Angeles' housing crisis. The prototype features a gray water system (used to recycle water), hyper-insulated windows and solar panels -- coming to about a $250,000 to make. 

Long Ngu and other student designers showcased a 425-square-foot home, made entirely by cement spraying robots. Sustainability was the heart of this project, with robot printers adding vegetables groves on one of the walls.

However, efficiency was also a focus. Two-thirds of the walls were built in just three days.

“The fact that you can make walls in three days and build quickly, you can solve a lot of the issues we’re struggling with,” said Aaron Gensler, chair of architecture at the Burbank university.

The city’s housing crisis is no mystery. The 2022 Affordable Housing report found the need to create around 499,430 affordable homes in Los Angeles County to meet demands among households at or below 50% of the area median income (AMI). 

Dr. Barry Ryan, president and CEO of Woodbury University, believes this project could be the first step in meeting the need. “This could be a significant part of future home-building. It addresses so many issues," he said.

The efficiency component was designed to require less labor-intensive methods. However, rather than eliminating jobs, Gensler believes this will reinvent them. 

“Instead of people using their bodies to build it, they're using their brains to program the robot or create new concrete mixtures,” she said.