3D-PRINTED HOUSING

JASON BALLARD CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, ICON

Back in 2018, ICON built the first permitted 3D-printed home in the U.S., a 350-square foot house that took just 47 hours to construct. Since then, the company and its Vulcan 3D printer, which extrudes thin layers of a high-strength concrete in programmed patterns to essentially build the walls of a building from the ground up, have created more than two dozen structures. Among them: the largest 3D-printed structure in North America: a 3,800 square-foot military barracks in Bastrop, Texas.

Now ICON plans to break ground next year on a community of 100 3D-printed houses, the largest neighborhood of its kind in the world. Since printable homes can be made twice as fast as traditional methods and cost up to 30 percent less, bringing them into the mainstream could potentially improve home affordability, accessibility and sustainability. “The U.S. faces a deficit of 5 million new homes and worldwide there are 1.2 billion humans that lack adequate shelter. There is a profound need to swiftly increase supply without compromising quality, beauty, or sustainability,” says Ballard. “Homebuilding has seen no significant changes since the Middle Ages. It’s time for a paradigm shift.”