World's largest 3D-printed neighborhood to break ground in Texas
CTV
A new property development in Austin, Texas, is set to become the world's largest community of 3D-printed homes.
Scheduled to break ground next year, the project will feature 100 single-story houses "printed" on-site using advanced robotic construction and a concrete-based building material.
Digital renderings of the neighborhood, unveiled last week, show rows of properties with their roofs covered in solar cells. The homes will each take approximately a week to build, according to firms behind the development.
The project is a collaboration between homebuilding company Lennar and ICON, a Texas-based construction firm specializing in 3D-printed structures. The houses have been co-designed by the Danish architecture practice Bjarke Ingels Group.
Although ICON would not disclose the cost of the project, the company said its technology is significantly faster and cheaper than conventional construction methods -- partly because it requires less manual labor. The building process will involve five of the firm's 46-foot-wide robotic "Vulcan" printers, which pipe out a concrete mix called Lavacrete according to a pre-programmed home design.
