Take a look inside the world's largest 3D printed housing development

Just outside Austin, in Georgetown, Texas, vast brand new planned communities as far as the eye can see, which is quite far in this part of the country. But a small subdivision immediately draws the focus. Just completed, it is now the world's largest 3D-printed community.

Two years ago, LennarThe second largest home builder in the country, collaborated with Icon, a 3D technology company, to print 100 houses in the Wolf Ranch development. The companies say that around 75% of them have already been sold.

All walls have completed edges, because this way the printers navigate with the concrete. Due to the layering process it feels like a hard corduroy with wide Walloons. The roof covering is the only part of the structures that are not 3D printing and is made of metal in this community. Every house is on solar energy.

“We have a sustainable product here that if you look at the wind resistance for hurricanes, the fire resistance for a fire-worn-out-the possibility of adapting the modern product to what we need for the future in housing and building a healthier housing market is great,” said Stuart Miller, chairman and Co-Coo van Lennar.

Icon started the project at Wolf Ranch in 2022, using two 40-foot robot printers. By the second year, the company used 11 machines, so that the printing time was shortened in half and two houses per week was cut out. Every printer does the work of more than a dozen construction workers. The systems operated 24 hours a day.

“All lessons about this technology must be done on a scale,” says Jason Ballard, CEO of Icon. “The truth is in the field, not in the lab.”

Ballard said that his team had to work out large -scale logistics with the Lennar teams, everything, from laying foundations to pressure walls, installing interior systems and adding roofing.

“Finding out how to integrate with the activities of Lennar, which are probably the best scale builders in the world, was a really growing moment for our company,” said Ballard.

The houses have all the facilities of a conventionally built Lennar community. They come in models of 2 and 3 bedrooms and start with just under $ 400,000.

Holly Feekings and her husband, both retired, moved to their 3D-printed house about a year ago. She said that the best part of life in the printed house is her electric bill – only $ 26 last month. Concrete retains its temperature, heat or cold air, better than its previous standard colonial, said Feekings. She also likes the sustainability of the house.

“I feel safer in this house than any house I have ever lived because it is built so well, it is not going to burn off,” said Feekings.

Around the corner Pierre Megie and his girlfriend were attracted by the appearance of the house.

“We wanted high doors, larger ceilings, cement floors, somehow, and this house had everything. Really just a combination of energy efficiency, the usability, the price and then the aesthetics,” Megie said.

The community was an experiment for Lennar. The costs to get up, according to Miller and Ballard, were slightly higher than expected when they worked through the nodding.

Miller said that Lennar is now his second 3D-printed community in Texas planting with Icon, about 200 houses, which will cost even less to build, seeing what the companies have learned in Georgetown. The next community will have larger houses, and Ballard expects them to go up even faster and cheaper.

“We have seen our costs fall by half. We have seen our cycling time fall by half. This is a significant improvement in the development of a housing market that has the opportunity to change over time and to be more flexible and functional in offering affordable and feasible housing for a wider part of the market,” Miller said.

Regarding the increasing risk of rates between us and trading partners, Ballard said that all the concrete that uses his company comes from Stateside.