What happens to the real estate market when homes are 3D printed?  It's an excellent question with still some hazy answers. But now that we're no longer confined to printing in 2D, opportunities are endless for businesses who rely on manufacturing and design, like the real estate and development industries. 

We chatted with Christina Perla and Manny Mota, owners of makelab, an on-demand 3D printing shop in Brooklyn, to explore the benefits of a 3D printed housing market.

How is 3D printing revolutionizing the housing industry?

Christina Perla: Buildings can go up faster with less labor costs than with traditional methods of building. You’re also able to build scale models more efficiently, leading to faster approvals from clients. You can go from a scale model of the outside of the building, to individualized models of different room layouts.

Manny Mota: It presents an entire new sales process for modular home businesses, for interior design businesses.

As 3D printed homes go from hype to habitable, what are the top 3 benefits of 3D printing homes, in your opinion?

CP: With 3D printing, you’re not limited to premade materials. Because of this, you aren’t limited to development in specific areas because of supplier locations. Shipping and handling of materials for building aren’t as much of a concern either.

MM: Another benefit is you're not stuck with a square room by default. Because of the way 3D printing works, you're able to make curvilinear shapes instead of just rectangle ones. You're also able to calculate costs better and plan ahead more.

Are you seeing any spike in requests from real estate and development industries?

MM: For Makelab, we actually are seeing a spike in requests. We get many requests for scale models, in both full color and 1 solid color. We also get some requests to reproduce a building that will be given as a gift to clients or developers.

CP: Interestingly, we've also had recent requests for customized planters from real estate brokers to stage homes. These planters would then be given as gifts to the buyer/renter. It’s quite interesting to see how 3D printing has reached a huge market. We are excited to see more requests come our way, especially as we are preparing to launch our home goods line, Makelab Market. We think 3D printing is a great way to warm up a home while adding modern technology into the mix!

To learn more about makelab, please visit www.makelab.nyc