- Title: World’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood nears completion in Texas
- Date: 8th August 2024
- Summary: GEORGETOWN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (JUNE 30, 2024) (REUTERS) VARIOUS DRONE AERIALS OF ICON’S VULCAN 3D PRINTER PRINTING HOME (MUTE) VARIOUS OF 3D PRINTER PRINTING WALLS OF HOME AS WORKERS MONITOR GEORGETOWN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (JUNE 26, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE)(English) CONNER JENKINS, ICON SENIOR PROJECT MANAGER, SAYING: “One layer at a time, Vulcan prints a full house
- Embargoed: 22nd August 2024 06:59
- Keywords: 3d printed architecture 3d printed home 3d printer 3d printing BIG Bjarke Ingels Group austin texas icon lennar real estate texas
- Location: Georgetown, Texas, United States
- City: Georgetown, Texas, United States
- Country: US
- Topics: North America,Science
- Reuters ID: LVA001286130072024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Like any desktop 3D printer, the 3D printing company ICON’s Vulcan printer goes layer by layer to build an object – except this printer is more than 45-feet wide, weighs 4.75 tons and prints residential homes.
This summer, the robotic printer is finishing the last few homes of 100 3D-printed houses in Wolf Ranch, a community in Georgetown, Texas, about 30 miles from Austin, Texas.
ICON calls it the world’s largest 3D-printed community and began printing the walls of homes here in November 2022. Compared to traditional construction, the company says that 3D printing homes is faster, less expensive, requires fewer workers, and minimizes waste of construction materials.
“It brings a lot of efficiency to the trade market,” said ICON senior project manager Conner Jenkins. “So, where there were may be five different crews coming in to build a wall system, we now have one crew and one robot delivering that scope.”
After concrete powder, water, sand and other additives are mixed together and pumped into the printer, a nozzle lays the concrete mixture layer by layer along a pre-programmed path. The single-story 3D-printed homes take about three weeks to finish printing.
Only the walls are printed – the foundation and metal roof are installed traditionally by project partner Lennar. A third partner, architects Bjarke Ingels Group, designed the eight floor plans ranging from three- to four-bedrooms and 1,500 to 2,000 square feet.
Jenkins said the layered, concrete walls are designed to be resistant to water, mold, termites and extreme weather.
Austin native Lawrence Nourzad, a 32-year-old business development director, and his girlfriend Angela Hontas, purchased a 3D-printed Wolf Ranch home earlier this summer.
“It feels like a fortress,” Nourzad said. “I am confident it can go head-on with…maybe an F2, F3 tornado and be pretty resilient.”
Nourzad added the walls provide strong insulation from the Texas heat, keeping the interior temperature cool even when the air conditioner isn’t on full blast.
He did, however, note one other thing the 3D-printed walls seemed to protect against: a solid wireless internet connection.
“Probably the biggest issue that we're running into…some slight connectivity problems with Wi-Fi,” Nourzad said.
“Obviously these are really strong, thick walls. And that's what provides a lot of value for us as homeowners and keeps this thing really well-insulated in a Texas summer, but signal doesn't transfer through these walls very well.”
The 3D-printed homes at Wolf Ranch, collectively called the “Genesis Collection” by developers, range in price from around $450,000 to close to $600,000. Developers said a little more than one quarter of the 100 homes have been sold.
ICON, which 3D printed its first home in Austin, Texas in 2018, has plans to take its technology to the Moon. As part of the space agency’s Artemis Moon exploration program, NASA has contracted ICON to develop a construction system capable of building landing pads, shelters, and other structures on the lunar surface.
(Production: Evan Garcia) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None