A 3D printed home? It’s either the wave of the future or an amusing novelty act – but you never know until you try, right?

Today, a retired couple is giving it a shot, having moved into a 1,012-square-foot 3D printed concrete home in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, according to a Business Insider story.

And the homes offer security as among the modern comforts.

“It has the feel of a bunker — it feels safe,” Harrie Dekkers, one of the occupants who moved in April 30, told The Guardian. 

Some details, because people are going to be curious:

  • The 3D printed home, an idea in its relative infancy, is still narrowly more costly than traditional homes.
  • This new home is made up of 24 concrete pieces printed at a printing plant and trucked to the worksite.
  • The homes are intended to be used for decades.
  • The cost of these homes, to be rented to private occupants on six-month contracts, is about $1,400 a month. 

The debut effort is planned to include five such homes – built one after another so, house by house, lessons can be learned about the process – produced under Project Milestone, a major collaborative effort (Eindhoven University of Technology, the municipality, industry experts, architects and several private companies, according to the Insider story).

The goal is to help 3D concrete printing become a workable solution to housing shortages.

And it’s not limited to cookie-cutter plans.

“In addition to affordable homes, the market increasingly demands innovative housing concepts,” Yasin Torunoglu, a housing official in Eindhoven, said in a press release.

“With the 3D printed home, we’re now setting the tone for the future: the rapid realization of affordable homes with control over the shape of your own house.”

The first unit is one story, but Project Milestone plans subsequent homes to be multilevel.

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