3D-Printed Homes Aren't the Future—They're the Now

Two entirely 3D-printed communities are in the works, and the off-site construction companies are calling demand “off the charts.” The first publicly available 3D-printed home hit the market last month, created by New York-based SQ4D, and 3D home pioneer ICON just wrapped up four homes in East Austin. SQ4D’s home has yet to be printed, but its model home in Long Island received more than 100 showings, CNBC reports. ICON’s Texas homes, constructed in collaboration with Kansas City developer 3Strands, feature two to four bedrooms, with prices starting in the $400,000 range. 3Strand’s co-founder and CEO says “demand has been off the charts.” Read more to see Mighty Building’s partnership with Meritage Homes.

The city of Austin, one of the fastest growing metropolitan markets in the country, has already embraced the concept of 3D-printed homes, so the zoning and permitting process was relatively easy, O’Dell said.

“We built four homes in the configuration we did because we could do it in the existing zoning,” he added.

A year ago, ICON printed seven, one-story, 400-square-foot homes in Austin, in collaboration with Mobile Loaves & Fishes, an Austin non-profit. The homes are part of a community for the homeless. That experience, along with printing about a dozen homes at another project in Mexico, gave ICON all the knowledge it needed to move forward quickly on the new larger homes that are now for sale.

“We are going to be graduating from homes by the dozen to homes by the hundred,” said Jason Ballard, CEO of ICON.

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