Is this the answer to the homeless problem?
Austin-based firm ICON, together with nonprofit company New Story and designer Yves Béhar, hope so. They have partnered to construct a brand-new village of homes in Latin America to house impoverished families. Fifty homes in the village will be 3D printed and finished this year.
“New Story has partnered with ICON to create the world’s first 3D printed community, said ICON in a press release announcing the village. “The project breaks ground this year and will utilize ICON’s newly unveiled Vulcan II technology making homes affordable, resilient and sustainable and delivering them in a fraction of the time. The community, in Latin America, will serve families without access to adequate housing.”
ICON’s release also reveals that the 400 recipients of the homes comprise “hardworking families—many who are supported as brick makers as their occupation,” and that “the average family in the community is four individuals who are living on less than $200 per month.”
Each home in the village will measure a little over 592 square feet on a lot of about 1,291 square feet.
“The ambitious project originated with New Story’s mission to end global homelessness with sustainable, cutting-edge technology—and Icon's 3D-printed home has been adapted into new site-specific designs thanks to fuseproject’s on-the-ground community workshops,” said Dwell.
“New Story believes that the homes could lift the families out of poverty and provide life-changing benefits for generations to come. ICON has developed a portable printer that will create durable and scalable homes out of local concrete. The device is engineered to work in remote areas that may lack access to water, power, and labor infrastructure. Last year, the team successfully printed a prototype house in Austin, and with the help of fuseproject, they've updated their designs to better meet the community’s needs and the tropical environment.”
Plans for the homes include outdoor kitchens and an outdoor area for crops and chickens. “The walls and structural elements for each home can be printed in just 24 hours with nearly zero waste,” they said.
ICON’s Vulcan II printer can 3D print “entire communities with up to 2,000 square foot homes,” according to ICON. “Using this technology, we can print a custom home, and we can do it quicker, with less waste, and at a lower cost than traditional homebuilding methods.”
