3D Printed House for $4,000 in Less than 24 Hours

by Heather Callaghan
March 16, 2018

America has a “first” to be truly proud of. The first permitted 3D printed house in the U.S. was just completed in Austin, Texas in less than 24 hours and costs less than $4,000.

Not only is this amazing feat turning heads everywhere, it’s also causing everyone to ask “What now?” Especially the housing industry, I’m sure. But perhaps a better question would be – “What can’t we do now?”

GNN Reports:

The stylish house was created by ICON, an innovative construction company, and New Story, a charity dedicated towards providing shelter for families in the developing world.

After the successful establishment of the home in Austin, the organizations are now working towards building a whole community of the 3D-printed homes in rural El Salvador or Haiti.

Each home costs roughly $4,000 to create, with a small amount of additional human labor. All the sources for the building are locally-sourced and made from mortar. Additionally, each home takes only about 12 to 24 hours to make.

ICON co-founder Jason Ballard said:

With 3D-printing, you not only have a continuous thermal envelope, high thermal mass, and near zero-waste, but you also have speed, a much broader design palette, next-level resiliency, and the possibility of a quantum leap in affordability. This isn’t 10 percent better, it’s 10 times better.

The home is 650 square feet and “3D printed out of concrete in under 24 hours using a mobile printer, at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas,” Treehugger reports.