Austin, Texas-based construction technology startup Icon built House Zero, a luxury home, and backyard tiny home, in nine months. This was done with the help of a 3D printer and the walls of the home were done in just one week.
This is being seen as a solution to the ongoing housing shortage and affordability crisis.
There are dozens of companies around the world that are beginning to specialize in the tech-forward homebuilding system.
This includes Icon, which uses its large Vulcan printer system and proprietary “high strength” concrete, known as “lavacrete,” to print the walls of its units. The printing systems can produce five to 10 inches in one second. The long-lasting lavacrete can withstand bad weather conditions while protecting the home from natural disasters, making it a safe and viable alternative to existing materials.
The automated printer also uses fewer materials and less labor. This makes it more economical. The rest of the pictures can be seen here.
Homes that could take about a year to build can instead be 3D printed and complete within several months, just like its latest House Zero. Icon began printing the walls of its latest luxury dwelling in May 2021.
Despite weather and hardware issues, the walls of the Texas home and its accessory dwelling unit were printed at the same time in eight days while working between about 16 to 18 hours a day.
The three-bedroom, 2-½ bathroom structure is lined with uniquely curved and wavy walls, an architectural element that was created to show off the Vulcan’s capability.
The design elements of House Zero wouldn’t have been possible without 3D printing.
When the walls were complete, the rest of the home — such as plumbing and window installation — was completed by February 2022.
For now, Icon’s printing system can only build walls, which is often the most “trade intensive” part of the home to build.
It is making the homebuilding process “radically faster and meaningfully cheaper” amid our ongoing housing crisis.
In the future, Icon wants to automate the whole home building process.
