In the Texas Hill Country outside Austin, Lennar has broken ground on a 100-home subdivision in which all the homes will be built using ICON’s 3D printing robots for the exterior and interior walls.
You can find a 1-minute You-Tube video clip demonstrating the process at https://constructutopia.com/3d-printing/lennar-and-icon-begin-100-home-3d-printed-community-texas
The bottom four homes in the aerial rendering above show the various stages of the 3D printing process. After a home’s slab is poured, an overhead gantry goes back and forth pouring 3-inch (I’m guessing) layers of concrete one on top of the other, following a computerized plan for the walls and openings.
Lennar is the first production builder I know of which has adopted ICON’s proprietary 3D printing process to build an entire subdivision. The process eliminates most of the waste and labor associated with building the walls in homes.
The windows and doors are framed conventionally, and wood trusses are added to support the roof.
Developed by Hillwood Communities, the 3- and 4-bedroom homes offer eight different floorplans, with 24 unique elevations ranging from 1,500 to over 2,100 square feet.
The Georgetown, Texas, community, called Wolf Ranch, will “set the standard for the future of homebuilding — technologically advanced, energy efficient and architecturally striking,” according to ICON.
The construction method is not only more sustainable but produces homes that are resistant to fires, floods, termites, and high-wind events.
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