"In the future we might print not only buildings, but entire urban sections"

"Prior to the industrial revolution, hand-production methods were abundant," she says. "Craft defined everything. The craftsman had an almost phenomenological knowledge of materials and intuited how to vary their properties according to their structural and environmental characteristics."

But the coming of the industrial revolution saw the triumph of the machine over the hand. "The machine was used to standardise everything. And the things we built – our products, our buildings – were defined by these industrial standards."

Now, however, digital technologies such as additive manufacturing allow craft and industry to merge. "Craft meets the machine in rapid fabrication," says Oxman. "We can generate craft with the help of technology."

from : http://www.dezeen.com/2013/05/21/3d-printing-architecture-print-shift/