Back in ’22, the first-ever 3D-printed home in Texas was printed in Austin, TX. It only took a couple of years after that for another giant leap forward for humankind. Today, 3D printing is everywhere, from prosthetics to organs, guns to new homes, and now entire neighborhoods.
Today’s 3D printed homes, at least in this neighborhood, couldn’t be considered “inexpensive housing.” These homes range in price from $450K to $600K. However, this is a massive step forward in what could be the future of inexpensive, mass-built homes.
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Georgetown, Texas, is the site of Wolf Ranch, a neighborhood of around 100 homes that has been “being printed” since November ’22.
Here’s how the process works, according to developers: “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.”
The ICON Vulcan printers measure 45 feet wide and weigh 4.75 tonnes.Concrete powder, water, sand, and other additives are mixed and pumped into the printer.A nozzle then lays the concrete mixture layer by layer along a pre-programmed path.
You have to see the video below; these homes are beautifully made of a concrete-like material that looks like it’s being poured from a delicious robotic Dairy Queen soft-serve machine.
The walls of these homes are designed to resist water, mold, termites, and extreme Texas weather. And according to ICON, 3D printing homes is faster, cheaper, and minimizes waste of construction materials. Doesn’t sound too bad.
The home debuted at SXSW in Austin in ’22, and if you’re interested in learning more about this, you can get more info about 3D homes right here. And who knows, one day all new neighborhoods might be “printed.”
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