14 DAY TRIAL // A home is a dwelling that has been lived in for a while and which has become a place of peace and refuge for the ones living in it. That's why you can't make and gift someone with a home, unless you're their home, as sappy as it sounds.
Giving someone a house, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish. A place to live. A roof over their heads. A lair. Or whatever other term you can think of.
Unfortunately, houses aren't something that are regularly gifted to people, since they tend to cost a fortune and need you to comb through a lot of bureaucratic natter before you get the papers in hand. Especially if you want the gift to be a surprise.
Now, though, it is possible to construct dwellings for a fraction of the cost of three or four years ago, and it can be done a lot faster too.
New campaign allows you to help gift the world's homeless with a place to live
If you haven't heard of the 3D Print Homes International yet, you're about to. It's a company that has posted a campaign on Kickstarter. Campaign whose sole aim is to 3D print homes for the homeless people of the world.
By their estimate, almost three billion people of the world's seven are homeless, or live in such poor housing that they may as well have no roof over their heads at all.
That's why the company hopes to raise £500,000 / $793,500 / €637,200 at the very least. The plan is to use that money to create a “state of the art 3D Print Home” 3D printer that can make dwellings that are both practical and not an eyesore.
It probably won't be able to move as fast as that nifty little contraption that can build houses out of regular soil, but it probably won't make the homes look like... that.
The 3D Print Homes International company is led by Fabian Jean-Baptiste, the founder of CNSTRCTN International, and will establish an office in London but target countries from all over the globe.
The steps of the plan
Raising the money is the first one, obviously. The second is creating and perfecting the printer, which will be shown off in London, in the hopes of raising extra capital by selling some of them. Then they'll send a 3D printer to each region they have in mind, to build as many homes as possible.
Backers can pledge between £50 / $80 / €63 (which will get you a certificate of contribution) and £5,000 / 8,000 / €6,370 (you get one of several things, like a consumer 3D printer from Kentstrapper and a home built in your name, or a meeting in London with the company founder, or a phone conversation with him).
