This is how an 11-foot-tall 3D printer is creating homes. All over the world, 1.6 billion people live In poor housing facilities,
According to Habitat for Humanity, A San Francisco-based non-profit organisation focused on creating housing solutions for communities in extreme poverty,is partnered with Échale,
A social housing production company in Mexico and Icon, a construction company in Austin, Texas
When ICON was first created, the biggest challenge was convincing skeptics.
Addressing the housing deficit
Now their biggest challenge is making more printers. A long way from the early stages of Icon’s growth.
Icon’s projects are backed by NASA, including developing space-based construction that aims at creating habitats on the moon and Mars.
3D printing seeks to address sustainability and the development of resources.
A couple of them were printed with Icon’s Vulcan II printer. New-Story first created the Village back in 2019.
it was termed the world’s first society of 3D-printed homes.
Two years later, 200 homes have either been completed or are under construction.
Commercializing 3D printed construction
Housing in the world is a major hurdle for any given country, and sustainable housing is even more so.
ICON seeks to change the construction space with 3D housing.
Almost every object can be 3D printed.
In construction, it uses foam, concrete, and polymers to create full-scale buildings.
Partnering with 3Strands and DEN Property Group on four 3D-printed homes in Austin, Texas, currently priced at $450,000 to $795,000.
Icon has also printed homes in the Community First Village in Austin, a project of the NPO Mobile Loaves & Fishes that provides stable housing to homeless men and women.
The 3D printing market grew by 21% in 2020 and it is estimated to double in size in the next five years.
According to Smithers, the 3D printing market is estimated to hit $558 billion by 2027.
In Nacajuca, building a home with Icon’s Vulcan II printer can be likened to an ice cream cone: layers of Lavacrete, Icon’s proprietary concrete mix, are poured one after another in long swirls.
Controlled via a tablet or smartphone, it can be completed within 24 hours and only requires as few as three workers.
Fighting the housing problem in this life, according to Brett Hagler, New Story’s CEO and one of the four founders of the non-profit organization, would involve being able to build quickly without sacrificing quality.
3D construction offers durability, and single-family homes are a good testing ground for this.
These houses can also be built to withstand natural disasters.
The site of Nacajuca sits in a seismic zone, and already the homes there have withstood a magnitude 7.4 earthquake.
While skeptics are still keeping a close eye on this technology and are watching the emergence of 3D housing closely,
Source: Newyork Times
