How about actually building a real house yourself, according to your inspiration, needs and tastes? Cool idea, right? With digital fabrication it's not as futuristic as you might expect.

Via Contour Crafting, a layered fabrication technology developed by Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California, you could basically 3D print with concrete instead of plastics or metals. Using this process, a single house or even a group of houses, each with possibly a different design, may be automatically constructed in a single run. Best of all, embedded in each house are all the conduits for electrical wires, plumbing and air-conditioning.

On top of opening up new creative possibilities, Contour Crafting can significantly reduce the cost of commercial construction while speeding up the process significantly. Projections indicate costs will be around one fifth as much as conventional construction, while construction projects will be accelerated. A 2000 square foot house can actually be constructed in less than 24 hours. 

Now this would effectively put an end to the terror of monotonous new neighborhoods springing up, which unfortunately is so common these days (especially in Holland, known as VINEX locations).

The Long Tail in housing enabled by digital fabrication is firmly in sight!