According to a recent report delivered by Realtor.com, the U.S. is facing a shortage of roughly 4 million homes. The reasons for this massive supply shortfall are manifold, but one critical factor is the rising cost of essential building materials like wood and steel. To help close this gap, a company called Icon is working to amp up construction and deliver affordable, sustainable, and high-quality homes faster than traditional approaches.
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Icon is a Texas-based construction tech company specializing in 3D printers for building homes. Icon’s next-level technology is powered by CarbonX, a proprietary low-carbon concrete formula engineered to be both highly extrudable (printable) and extremely resilient. The material enables Icon to build durable, sustainable homes at scale.
When combined with Icon’s wall system and automated construction methods, CarbonX is the most carbon-efficient residential building system currently available for large-scale deployment. A white paper co-authored with the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub demonstrates that homes built with CarbonX generate lower embodied and operational carbon emissions compared to conventional stick-framed construction.
Not only does CarbonX achieve a 24 percent lower carbon footprint than standard concrete, but the material is also locally sourced–contributing to its overall positive environmental image. Icon says that the cement-based material is composed of native South Texas ingredients that yield a product entirely new to the market when mixed. Furthermore, Icon claims that CarbonX can be 3D printed faster than traditional construction methods without compromising its structural integrity, a feat that enables the company to meet the extensive demand for new homes.
When it first launched in 2017, Icon built the country’s first 350-square-foot 3D printed home for the 2018 SXSW in just 48 hours. Three years later, the company broke into the mainstream housing market with the completion of the nation’s first 3D-printed homes for sale in Austin, Texas.
Icon is now nearing completion of the world’s largest 3D-printed neighborhood, Wolf Ranch, about thirty miles from Austin in Georgetown, TX. Home prices start in the $390,000s.
A second 3D printed community is being planned in Texas with renowned homebuilder Lennar. The new 200-home development will be even cheaper to build as the company benefits from improved economies of scale, explains chairman and co-CEO of Lennar, Stuart Miller:
“We’ve seen our costs go down by half. We’ve seen our cycle time go down by half. This is significant improvement in evolving a housing market that has the ability to change over time and being more adaptable and more functional in providing affordable and attainable housing for a broader swath of the market.”
The company is also focusing on the launch of Phoenix, its new multi-story, whole-home 3D robotic construction system. Icon says the new line of 3D printers will halve its printing costs.
To date, Icon has secured a whopping $507.5 million from investors.
As the cost of housing materials continues to soar, low-cost, sustainable solutions like Icon’s 3D printed homes may just be the key to making homeownership more accessible.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.