3D‑printed homes in Texas: Affordable innovation reshapes housing
3D home printing technology enables faster and cheaper construction using fewer materials. ICON built 100 homes in Texas using the Vulcan printer. Reuters reported that building a single home takes three weeks, and their market value ranges from €426,000 to nearly €570,000.
3D home printing technology is faster and cheaper and requires fewer building materials, according to ICON, responsible for building 100 homes in Georgetown, Texas. According to Reuters, they used the Vulcan 3D printer with a width of over 14 metres and a weight of approximately 4,750 kilograms.
Efficiency and construction costs
Printing a single-storey home with three or four bedrooms takes about three weeks. With traditional foundation and roof assembly, the market value of such buildings ranges between €426,000 and nearly €570,000.
Five teams once built house walls, but now we have one crew and a robot, said project manager Conner Jenkins. The first stage of construction involves mixing cement powder, water, sand, and other additives; then, the mixture is pumped into the printer. The printer nozzle extrudes the mixture like toothpaste, layering it one row after another according to a pre-programmed path. The wall texture resembles corduroy.
Durability and innovations
The concrete walls are designed to resist water, mould, termites, and extreme weather conditions. They are so solid that they also block wireless signals, meaning residents need to use mesh routers that transmit signals from multiple devices throughout the building.
Developers report that just over a quarter of the 100 homes in the Georgetown development have been sold so far.
ICON's collaboration with NASA
ICON received a contract from NASA under the Artemis programme to develop construction systems enabling the building of landing pads, shelters, and other structures on the Moon.
