A giant 3D printer is just finishing the world’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood in the Wolf Ranch community, in Georgetown, Texas.
The massive printer called Vulcan, a machine standing over 45 feet wide and weighing 4.75 tons is on its way to fishing up the last of 100 houses in the community located 30 miles from Austin.
According to Reuters, the printer, owned by ICON, began printing the houses in November 2022. According to the company, building houses with a 3D printer is faster, cheaper, requires fewer workers and minimizes material waste.
ICON’s senior project manager, Conner Jenkins, said the technology streamlines the process, replacing multiple crews with one robot.
The construction process involves mixing concrete powder, water, sand, and other additives, which are then pumped into the printer. The printer extrudes the mixture in layers, creating walls with a distinctive corduroy texture. These single-story homes, with three to four bedrooms, take about three weeks to print. However, foundation and metal roofs are installed using traditional methods.
The concrete walls are designed to be resistant to water, mold, termites, and extreme weather. However, the thick walls also present challenges for buyers.
“Obviously these are really strong, thick walls. And that’s what provides a lot of value for us as homeowners and keeps this thing really well-insulated in a Texas summer, but signal doesn’t transfer through these walls very well,” Lawrence Nourzad, who bought a 3D-printed house with her wife, told Reuters.
Currently, the houses range in price from around $450,000 to close to $600,000.
ICON, which printed its first home in Austin in 2018, has ambitious plans to take its technology to the Moon, with NASA contracting the company to develop construction systems for the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program.
