Here's an unusual take on how we might build things in the future: The subversive Danish creative collective known as N55's Spaceplates. The idea is that we would have the proverbial shit-ton of sheet goods delivered to our home, and we'd break out a domestic CNC, download some plans and have it start carving up modular units that we'd then put together.

N55 in collaboration with Anne Romme and Sam Kronick are prototyping a new building system called SPACEPLATES based on the geometry found in animal shells like the sea urchin. Its a low cost way of creating approximated double curved surfaces in a statically well defined way, minimizing the material use. When the system is ready, persons should be able to " print out" a SPACEPLATES construction ( a home, a greenhouse or a larger communal building), using materials like PC or aluminum and a CNC- router. (Even a small table version- cnc router will work).

You might recognize the name N55 from their Walking House project of '08; it was a mobile home "inspired by traditional nomadic culture and contemporary design solutions" that walked around on legs.

There hasn't been much news on the Walking House as of late, so presumably development has been kept quiet because...well, I think we all know where this is headed:

pyoo pyoo, pyoo pyoo