The world’s largest 3D-printed housing community was just completed

In 2022, Lennar, the nation’s second-largest homebuilder, partnered with Icon, a 3D technology company, to build 100 3D-printed homes in Georgetown, Texas, a city ~30 miles north of DONUT HQ in Austin.

This development was recently completed, making it the world’s largest 3D-printed community, CNBC reports. ~75% of the homes – 2- and 3-bedroom models starting at ~$400,000 – have already been sold, per the companies.

The process, the process, the process

While foundations, roofing, and finishes were built and installed traditionally, the walls of each house were constructed by Icon's Vulcan 3D printer, a 45-foot behemoth weighing nearly five tons that takes in raw concrete and spits out a corduroy-looking finished product with no right angles.

• The Georgetown project started off using two Icon printers. By the second year, the development was using 11 machines and churning out two homes per week.
• Each printer operates 24 hours/day, and does the job of more than a dozen construction workers.

Up next: The two companies are now working to build a 200-home community, also in Texas.

📸 Big picture: 3D printing has been hailed as a cheaper, faster, less resource-intensive way to build, with proponents hoping it can help chip away at America’s affordable housing shortage – and also more easily erect structures a little further from home. NASA in 2022 awarded ICON a $57 million contract to develop 3D-printing tech to build roads, launchpads, and homes on the Moon’s surface.