3D printing began on Thursday at a southeast Houston site expected to become the city’s first 3D-printed home community by next year.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of people including politicians, high school students and prospective investors\u00a0attended the official groundbreaking ceremony for Zuri Gardens<\/a>, the planned 80-home development<\/a> on 13 acres near the William P. Hobby Airport. The 2-bed, 2.5-bath homes are expected to go on the market by early next summer.<\/p>\n “Across every American city they’re talking about two things: housing innovation and housing affordability,” said Houston city council member Tiffany Thomas at the ceremony. “And I think Zuri Gardens is an opportunity for us to celebrate that Houston is continuing to lead around housing.”<\/p>\n RELATED:\u00a0Search the most and least expensive ZIP codes in Houston<\/a><\/p>\n The 1,360-square-foot homes will feature first floors 3D-printed by construction tech startup\u00a0HiveASMBLD and second floors built with conventional methods by Cole Klein Builders. The site, on Martindale Road adjacent to Sterling High School, will include more than 140 street parking spaces, a community space with 3D-printed benches and a pavilion, and an adjacent 5-acre park, said Cole Klein Builders partner Vanessa Cole.<\/p>\n Politicians and developers have touted\u00a0Zuri Gardens as an example of how 3D printing can make\u00a0homeownership more accessible by speeding up construction and lowering labor and material costs.\u00a0HiveASMBLD can build the first story of a Zuri Gardens house in four days, co-CEO Timothy Lankau said.<\/p>\n “We’re replacing siding, cladding, house wrap, framing, insulation, drywall, tape and float\u00a0– so we’re replacing seven trades with one process,” Lankau told the Houston Chronicle. “And that’s how we get that speed and those economics.”<\/p>\n The homes’ expected price tags\u00a0– in the mid- to high-$200,000s, Cole said\u00a0– will likely be on par with market rates for new builds in the area. The median sale price for a new home in the Medical South area was $298,000 this year, according to data from the Houston Association of Realtors. Still, the Zuri Gardens homes will be more affordable than the roughly $400,000 rates for the country’s only other major 3D-printed home community:\u00a0100 homes in Georgetown, Texas, <\/a>built by Austin startup ICON.<\/p>\n Only households who make between 80% and 120% of the area’s median income\u00a0– about $101,000 for families\u00a0– will be eligible to buy the Zuri Gardens homes. The income restrictions are a condition of a $1.8 million forgivable loan Cole Klein Builders received through the city of Houston’s Affordable Home Development Program to partially fund the project.<\/p>\n ALSO READ:\u00a0Houston’s affordable housing system helps insiders make millions<\/a><\/p>\n