3D-printed housing developments suddenly take off – here’s what they
Barely a month ago, a 3D-printed house was listed for sale to the public for the first time in the U.S.
Now, a small, 3D-printed community in Texas is following suit. Another, larger community in California is also in the works.
In other words, 3D-printed real estate is taking off in a big way.
That first home that went up for sale hasn’t even been built yet. The company, SQ4D, printed a model home at a concrete yard on Long Island, New York, and hosted more than a hundred showings. The new home will be printed on a lot nearby.
ICON, a pioneer in 3D-printed homes in the U.S., just completed four homes in East Austin, Texas. In partnership with Kansas City-based developer 3Strands, the two- to four-bedroom homes are now on the market, starting in the $400,000 range.
“The demand has been off the charts, hard to manage even,” said Gary O’Dell, co-founder and CEO of 3Strands. “The feedback could not have been more positive.”
The city of Austin, one of the fastest growing metropolitan markets in the country, has already embraced the concept of 3D-printed homes, so the zoning and permitting process was relatively easy, O’Dell said.
“We built four homes in the configuration we did because we could do it in the existing zoning,” he added.
3D printed home construction by 3Strands and ICON in Austin, Texas.
Source: ICON
A year ago, ICON printed seven, one-story, 400-square-foot homes in Austin, in collaboration with Mobile Loaves & Fishes, an Austin non-profit. The homes are part of a community for the homeless. That experience, along with printing about a dozen homes at another project in Mexico, gave ICON all the knowledge it needed to move forward quickly on the new larger homes that are now for sale.
“We are going to be graduating from homes by the dozen to homes by the hundred,” said Jason Ballard, CEO of ICON.
How they’re made
ICON prints the homes on site, using its Vulcan construction system, which spits out a “proprietary extrudable concrete,” according to Ballard, who added that this is the highest speed, lowest cost method. It also allows for the most flexibility in floor plans.
At the new development, ICON 3D-printed the first floor and then built the second story conventionally, but that allowed them to certify the wall system for two-story construction.
“It’s the quickest path from imagination to built options,” said Ballard. “You can produce things that look very elevated and very high end but are no more expensive to deliver than a straight wall would be.”
3D printed home construction by 3Strands and ICON in Austin, Texas.
Source: ICON
Ballard said construction of the homes is 10% to 30% cheaper and several months faster than conventional construction. This is especially important given the rising costs builders are seeing for conventional construction materials, like steel, aluminum and especially lumber.
“Housing has been an economic bright spot amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but the industry’s potential to lead the economy forward is limited as long as…
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