3D-Printed Community Is on The Way in Austin. Can This Technology Work in D-FW?
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As developers dealt with hurdles related to supply chains and labor shortages, they had to take notice of a recent home building development in Austin.
Homebuilder Lennar Homes and ICON, an Austin-based construction firm, jointly announced that a new 100-home development in Austin will be the world’s largest community of 3D-printed structures. Bjarke Ingels Group is assisting with the design. The project is scheduled to break ground next year.
The announcement came with digital renderings of the neighborhood showing rows of homes topped with photovoltaic roofs. The houses will be printed on-site using advanced robotic construction and concrete-based building material.
ICON touted the method, saying its technology is faster and cheaper than conventional construction methods that use steel, aluminum, and lumber. According to ICON, the process will include five app-controlled robotic printers, each weighing nearly two tons, which will squeeze out a concrete mix called Lavacrete (think of a Dairy Queen soft-serve) at five to seven linear inches per second.
Would 3D-Printed Technology Work in DFW?
Even with supply and labor issues, housing developments are coming up in droves across Dallas-Fort Worth, from the suburbs to the exurbs to the countryside.
We asked a few of the more active development firms in D-FW, and only Tom Woliver of Dallas-based Oxland Advisors answered the call.
Woliver has said that his projects don’t take that first step until their feasibility is absolutely clear and the accumulated data makes sense. He said the 3D-printed housing concept is “a very interesting innovation.
“It is exciting to see this new innovation in a much-needed industry, however, it often takes years to decades to implement these new technologies,” he said.
Woliver listed three stages for the 3D-printed housing concept to work. Additional layers of training and education will be needed to service these new products, he said.
“And lastly, it will likely take decades for the building codes and city ordinances to catch up on what the acceptable practices are,” he said. “All this being said, it is only a matter of time before these types of innovations enter into this much-needed industry.”
More on the Technology
The 3D-printed community in Austin already has had some spot testing. ICON and Kansas City developer 3Strands partnered to build 3D-printed homes in East Austin. Four homes ranging in size from about 1,000 to 2,000 square feet were printed in less than a week in Austin.
ICON said its proprietary 3-D printing technology can produce structures of up to 3,000 square feet. Lennar’s contribution will be roofs, windows, doors, and finishes. The process has its drawbacks and challenges, according to Ars Technica, which reviewed ICON’s claims of construction brevity and environmental savings.
The Austin community is scheduled for completion in 2022. In a statement, ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard called the Austin neighborhood “a watershed moment in the history of community-scale development.”
To learn more about the technology, visit ICON’s FAQ section.
