It’s practically a reality now. It was built in the United States using ICON’s huge Vulcan printer.
This is the largest 3D printed community in the world. It has been named Wolf Ranch and is located in Georgetown, Texas (United States). It is quite a technological feat since the 100 houses that make up this interesting and innovative community of owners have been created entirely and layer by layer with an industrial-sized 3D printer.
A small 3D printed village
Can a printer build your dream home? It could be. Wolf Ranch can be found along the San Gabriel River in the hills of Georgetown, Texas, about 30 miles north of Austin. Construction on the town, which is nearing completion, began back in 2022 on a project that will be completed in the summer just two years later. This speed has been possible because the modus operandi for building the 100 homes has not been traditional: all of them have been 3D printed in a collaboration between the Texas company ICON – specialized in large-scale 3D printing -, the Lennar company, which is also one of the largest home builders in this country, and the high-profile architecture studio Bjarke Ingels Group (or BIG) from Denmark – also based in New York – as co-designers. All of them have started an architectural revolution.
What are the houses like?
The homes are built from scratch using the Vulcan printer model, which measures 14.2 metres x 4.75 metres and is capable of building a 278 m2 home with minimal human supervision and without the need to move it. Each home is built layer by layer by extruding a proprietary cement-like mixture through a nozzle like grey toothpaste, following a previously entered blueprint, allowing for the easy construction of the basic structure of the home. Once this fundamental part of the home is complete, humans step in, finishing the windows, doors, roof and everything else necessary to finally call it a residence. The single-story homes range from 140 to 195 square metres in size and have two or three bathrooms available, depending on the floor plan. The interiors are light and airy with an open kitchen, generous windows and a large living room.
“For the first time in the history of the world, what we’re seeing here is a fleet of robots building an entire community of homes. And not just any homes, but homes that are better in every way… better design, stronger, more energy efficient and comfortable, and more resilient,” Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of ICON, explained in a press release.
How much does a 3D house cost?
According to the builders, prices for the homes, which are single-story, with three to four bedrooms, start at $400,000 (about €362,000) (from there, they can go up to $600,000). Each home takes about three weeks to fully print, and all of them are designed to oppose mold, heat, termites, water, and extreme weather conditions. Additionally, each home at Wolf Ranch is fix up with a solar panel system and smart home technology. This includes a digital lock, a Ring video doorbell, and a smart thermostat.
Revolutionizing construction
Since its founding, Icon has produced its own giant 3D printers, which can build home walls layer by layer and have allowed the company to produce designs that push boundaries with elements like curved walls. But it doesn’t stop there. The company has created a new printer, dubbed Phoenix, that overcomes some of the barriers that Vulcan has, such as certain limitations when it comes to printing certain parts of the house, while also helping to reduce construction costs and increasing the design possibilities of final homes.
We will be able to see these houses on the Moon
ICON is quite ambitious in its ultimate goals. Another of its major projects is to print 3D houses on our satellite, the Moon, as part of NASA’s Artemis lunar exploration program. The American space agency has already hired ICON’s services to bring its technology into space and be able to build shelters, landing platforms and other necessary structures on the surface of our Moon.
“To shift the paradigm of space exploration from ‘go and come back’ to ‘be there to stay,’ we’re going to need robust, resilient, and broadly capable systems that can utilize the local resources of the Moon and other planetary bodies. We’re pleased that our research and engineering to date have demonstrated that such systems are indeed possible, and we look forward to making that possibility a reality,” Ballard said after the official announcement of the contract with NASA.
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