3D printed housing developments suddenly take off – this is what they look like

Just over a month ago, a 3D printed house went on sale to the public for the first time in the United States.

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.

This first house put up for sale has not even been built yet. The company, SQ4D, printed a model house in a concrete yard in Long Island, New York, and staged over a hundred screenings. The new house will be printed on land nearby.

ICON, the pioneer of 3D printed homes in the United States, has just completed four homes in East Austin, Texas. Partnering with Kansas City-based developer 3Strands, two- to four-bedroom homes are now on the market, starting at $ 400,000.

“The demand has been out of the ordinary, difficult 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, said O’Dell.

“We built four houses in the configuration we made because we could do it within the existing zoning,” he added.

A year ago, ICON printed seven 400-square-foot one-story homes in Austin, in conjunction with Mobile Loaves & Fishes, an Austin nonprofit. The houses are part of a community for the homeless. This experience, along with the impression of a dozen homes on another project in Mexico, gave ICON all the knowledge it needed to move quickly on the new, larger homes that are now for sale.

“We’re going to go from homes per dozen to homes per hundred,” said Jason Ballard, CEO of ICON.

ICON prints homes in place, using its Vulcan building system, which spits out “proprietary extrudable concrete,” according to Ballard, who added that this was the fastest and cheapest method. It also allows for greater flexibility in floor plans.

In the new development, ICON 3D printed the first floor and then built the second floor in a conventional way, but this allowed them to certify the wall system for two-story construction.

“It’s the quickest path between the imagination and the built-in options,” Ballard said. “You can produce things that look very high and very high end, but are no more expensive to deliver than a straight wall would be.”

Ballard said building the homes was 10% to 30% cheaper and several months faster than conventional construction. This is especially important given the increasing costs that builders see for conventional building materials, such as steel, aluminum and especially wood.

“Housing has been an economic bright spot amid the Covid-19 pandemic, but industry’s potential to advance the economy is limited as long as building materials remain expensive and scarce,” researchers wrote from the National Association of Home Builders earlier this month. “Builders are doing everything possible to avoid charging consumers away from their homes while maintaining the competitive prices necessary to operate their business.

There is also a serious labor shortage in the residential construction industry. 3D printed houses require very few workers because the printer does most of the construction.

The ICON community in Texas may be the first, but right on its heels a much larger community is planned in Rancho Mirage, Calif. By competitor Mighty Buildings.

In collaboration with developer Palari Group, the company has just announced that it will install 15 3D printed houses in what it considers “the world’s first planned community of 3D printed houses … centered on the integration of technology and sustainability ”.

Mighty Builders claims that the 3D printing production process eliminates 99% of construction waste and is 30-40% cheaper than traditional construction. It will also use solar energy.

Mighty Builders started in 2017, inventing a polymer composite that could be compared to synthetic stone. He made the panel house in a factory and then moved them, but for the community of Rancho Mirage, the houses will be printed on the spot.

“It’s totally different from concrete because our material is energy efficient,” said Alex Dubov, COO at Mighty Buildings. “We aim to achieve a net zero energy standard for each unit. Our material has lower thermal conductivity. There is no loss of heat and cold between the inside and the outside.

Whether concrete or polymer, these homes have proven to be much more energy efficient, durable and resilient than traditional timber homes.

Just ask Tim Shea, 70, who lives in one of the ICON homes built for the homeless in Austin. It weathered the recent cold and ice storm without any problems.

“I didn’t even know there was one until I raised the blinds,” Shea said. “It’s great. I can just deliver a bunch of adjectives, but it’s a fantastic place. It’s the most unique place I’ve ever lived. Houses, apartments, I’m like a bug in a rug in this place. “

ICON homes in Mexico have already withstood a major earthquake without any damage. Since the houses are made of concrete, they are resistant to mold, termites, water and rot.

Mighty Buildings is still assessing whether its material is strong enough to withstand hurricane force winds, as it seeks to expand its geographic footprint.

“We have some interest from Florida and the East Coast,” Dubov said. “We serve customers all over California, so we are 100% confident that our homes can withstand earthquakes or wind. The only exception is that the hurricane tests are not complete.”

With the demand for 3D printed homes now so strong, the biggest challenge for these businesses is how to grow quickly. ICON has four printing systems and is already building more. Ballard, who now employs 40 people, said he expects the company to reach more than 100 people this year.

ICON announced a $ 35 million funding round led by Moderne Ventures in August 2020. This investment brings ICON’s total funding since its launch in 2018 to $ 44 million. Among the round-table investors were Oakhouse Partners, Cielo Property Group, the country’s largest homebuilder, DR Horton and Emaar, among others.

“The biggest challenge for ICON is that we are limited by supply. We have more people asking us to build houses than we know what to do now,” Ballard said. “Every building system we have is booked for the next 24 months.” He calls it a “champagne” problem.

“It’s every entrepreneur’s dream,” he says.