3D-Printed Community in Texas Nearly Complete

In 2021, sustainable building start-up ICON, homebuilding company Lennar, and designer BIG announced plans to 3D print a 100-home community in the Georgetown neighborhood of Austin — the largest of its kind in the world. The Wolf Ranch Community project broke ground in November 2022 and is now in its final stages, according to an article from Parametric Architecture. “Some residents have already started moving into their new homes, and more than a quarter of the homes have been sold,” reports PA managing editor Serra Utkum Ikiz.

The single-story, three- to -four bedroom homes are printed on a 4.75 ton Vulcan 3D printer using a mixture of concrete powder, water, sand, and other materials. Each house takes about three weeks to complete and are priced between $450,000 and $600,000. ICON has also built a community of 600-800 square foot homes for impoverished families in Latin America; each of those smaller units could be printed in as little as a day.

While entire neighborhoods of 3D printed homes are still a novel concept, a growing number of developers have turned to 3D printing in recent years as a way to build homes faster and more affordably, including Habitat for Humanity; 3D-printing homes with concrete can save up to 15 percent on construction costs and cut months off traditional construction timelines by requiring smaller construction teams.