3D-Printed Homes

3D-Printed Home Can Be Constructed For Under $4,000

A home like this can be built in less than 24 hours at a cost of only $4,000. The secret? 3D printing. And they could help families living in poverty and unsafe conditions. New Story, a housing charity organization, and ICON, a construction tech company, have partnered together. Their goal is to end global homelessness.

Alexandria Lafci: So having strong, sturdy walls, having a door that we can close at night — it's something that we take for granted. Being able to lock our door and be safe. For many of these families, for years, sometimes even a lifetime, they don't have that opportunity to have a safe shelter. So when they move into a New Story community, when they move into a safe home, families lives are transformed.

An entire community of these 3D printed homes will be constructed in El Salvador. The ultimate goal is to get costs down to $4,000 per house with a build time of fewer than 24 hours.

This prototype house was built in Austin, TX. The home measures 650 square feet. Mortar was printed layer by layer. Human workers installed windows, doors, plumbing, and electrical systems. Here's what's inside: A living room. Small office space. One bedroom. One bathroom. ICON staff will use the home as an office to test the durability.

Evan Loomis: Our first product is a 3D printer that can print a house in 24 hours for half the cost. Phase one for News Story and for ICON is a proof of concept house and the good news is we've done it. We printed the first home in the United States that's going to be permitted and for us, this is just the beginning. The real kind of home run for us is to be able to do what we've done here in Austin, Texas in the developing world and we're doing that in what we call phase two which is in El Salvador. We are going to be printing an entire village for people that don't have homes.