Hasta La Gadget!

The ÁPH80 prefab houses are made at a CNC (computer numerical control) mill factory located in Northern Spain. Designed by architect Camino Alonso—one of the owners at architectural firm Ábaton—is a compact 29.5 by 9.84 feet (9 by 3 meters) home that can get carried in a truck and deployed in 20 minutes.

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3D printing continues to become more mainstream, with some printers hitting the market for under $400(USD) now. While the technology is still in its relative infancy, it’s only a matter of time before 3D printing is used to build everything from gadgets to toys to cars and even houses. The technology is still too slow and costly to do the latter, but that didn’t stop one site from figuring out how today’s 3D printing tech could be used to print the bricks for your next home.

The guys at the Movoto blog came up with a calculator which can figure out how much money and time it would take to 3D print a house using today’s technology. If you look at the example above, a 4000 sq. ft., 3 level house would cost nearly $500,000 in plastic 3D printing materials, and take a whopping 322-1/2 years to complete on a single 3D printer. I’m not sure I can wait that long. Oh, and did I mention that’s just for the exterior bricks? You’ll still need to build the interior and roof the old fashioned way.

You can punch in your own home dimensions in the calculator below to see how much time and money it would take to 3D print your house:

By Movoto

On the plus side, 3D printing is getting faster and cheaper with every generation, so I’m sure that you’ll be able to print the components for large structures in much less time at some point during our lifetimes. Though I’m not sure it’ll ever be cheaper or faster than using traditional building materials.

There are lots of different ways to keep intruders out of your house. You could go with some garden gnomes, or possibly a gargoyle, or maybe even a statue. But nobody will mess with you if your driveway is protected by a dragon.

Before you ask, this isn’t the entrance to House Targaryen on the island of Dragonstone. It’s the front gate of Harlech House, a nearly 10,000 square foot private residence located in Goatstown, Dublin, Ireland. The house was built in 1798, but was extensively remodeled about 15 years ago. The interior of the house is quite opulent and impressive, so it’s only appropriate that access is restricted by a gate.

It’s too bad that it doesn’t breathe fire when an unwanted solicitor comes to ring the bell. That’d be neat.

[via Different Solutions/Facebook & BuiltDublin]

It’s always been fun to climb trees, and I guess that it’s cool to have some sort of high perch in your garden or in the wilderness to look out from. While you won’t be dragging this unwieldy tent around anytime soon, it’s certainly an interesting way of setting up a treehouse for adults.

The Luminair Tree Tent is a semi-permanent tree house. The curved hybrid aluminum and steam-bent ash frame provides stability, while the 16oz waterproof cotton canvas skin keeps the elements out.

It’s about 10 feet in diameter, which is big enough for two adults. The whole setup weighs about 264 lbs. and can handle another 550 lbs in occupants.

Unfortunately, the Luminair Tree Tent doesn’t come cheap. You’ll have to spend £6500 (~$10,095 USD) in order to get yours. Or you could just build a tree house the old-fashioned way.

[via Uncrate]

This has to be the cutest, most hilariously pointless PC case mod in history. I look at this and I just want to live in this cozy PC. In fact, my house looks pretty much like this—with a brick wall instead of circuits. And being in New York, it’s about this size too. More »