Need a building customized for a particular site quickly? Researchers say a 3D printer may be the answer -- and could reduce the cost to boot. Researcher Steven Keating and colleagues write in this week's Science Robotics a 3D system could reduce construction costs while speeding the process, incorporating different materials and densities as the process moves forward to produce optimal combinations of strength and other properties. "Contemporary construction techniques are slow, labor-intensive, dangerous, expensive, and constrained to primarily rectilinear forms, often resulting in homogenous structures built using materials sourced from centralized factories," the researchers said. Instead, they propose a digital construction platform, an "automated construction system capable of customized on-site fabrication of architectural-scale structures using real-time environmental data for process control."