Via Treehugger and Inhabitat, no empty promises of wall-size plasmas and counter-top fab labs. Bell Travers Willson Architects is building The Digital House using some sophisticated CNC action to nail (sorry) both the 3D and the labor parts.

From Jill: The Digital House brings high-tech building methods to a broad housing market, providing a high quality, well designed and more sustainable alternative to traditional housing. Just how does it work, you ask? The structure is produced using a detailed 3D computer model that includes specs for every single construction element, from entire walls to tiny screw holes. This information is then transfered to a CNC machine (Computer Numerical Control), which cuts the components from engineered timber. The components are then packed and shipped, ready to be assembled into a house of your very own. For some of the larger components, the pre-cut timber sheets are assembled into lightweight hollow “cassettes” , which can be filled with recycled newspaper for insulation and air tightness.

From Lloyd: The technology behind the Digital House allows every part cut to be different than the next, so that houses can be customized to each individuals requirements. This moves away from the standardization that has previously been an economic driving force in prefabricated systems that are criticised for being inflexible in their designs and visually repetitive.