Imagine sitting at your computer putting the final touches to your home design and knowing that outside on the ground, it will be completed to the rooftop in 24 hours time.

That’s the scenario for a patented system of building that could be common in the future and already set to be trialled by a major construction industry company.

Known as 'contour crafting', the process is the invention of an engineering professor, Behrokh Khoshnevis, of the University of Southern California. The technique is similar to 3D printing frequently used for prototyping industrial designs but scaled up to a massive size and fed with wet concrete.

Khoshnevis believes that his technology will make it possible to build a house from foundation to roof in less than 24 hours.

"Our goal," says the professor, "is to be able to completely construct a one-storey 2000-square foot home on site in one day, without using human hands."

The key to the invention is a ‘robot’ hanging from a gantry crane like those used on docksides. The robot takes instructions directly from an architect's computerised drawings and then squirts successive layers of concrete on top of one other to build up vertical walls and domed roofs.

As the special concrete dries, the robot repeats its journey many times to raise the height and builds hollow walls before returning to fill them.

Degussa AG, of Dýsseldorf, Germany, the world's largest manufacturer and supplier of building materials, is to collaborate on the project to help Khoshnevis find the best kind of building material, reports New Scientist this week.

The main factor determining how long it would take to build a house is the drying time of the concrete - each new layer can be laid down only once the previous layer has dried. Khoshnevis plans to build several houses at once to help with this issue but is using industry experts to investigate liquids other than wet concrete.

Adobe, a mix of mud and straw that is dried by the Sun, could be suitable, thinks Khoshnevis, but Degussa AG has a subsidiary, Admixture, ready to develop materials specifically for the contour crafting technology.

Khoshnevis thinks the technology will take the construction industry by storm. There is little waste, it’s safer as there will be fewer construction workers on site and architects will love the freedom to produce unusual shapes. Khoshnevis has even worked out a fully automated system for putting in the pipes and electrical conduits. They could even automate the painting, literally printing colours and patterns directly on to the walls.