Printing Perfection

Abode2 discovers how the new Exploration Series by Icon, in collaboration with world-class architects, pushes the boundaries of resilient and sustainable 3D-printed luxury home designs

ICON, the leader of advanced construction technologies that advance humanity, recently unveiled its next generation Vulcan construction system and debuted its new Exploration Series of homes to cooperatively develop new design languages and architectural vernaculars with world-class architects based on the opportunities created by construction scale 3D printing.

ICON’s first home in the series, “House Zero,” is designed by the award-winning firm, Lake|Flato Architects and features an elevated architectural and energy efficient design that highlights the benefits of resiliency and sustainability only found in homebuilding through 3D printing.

“House Zero will be the most incredible 3D-printed home in the world, because it was optimized and designed specifically to be 3D printed,” said Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO, ICON. “This is the moment when people around the world will see more of the architectural design freedom and benefits of a 3D-printed house and believe that they too would want to live in one.”

Located in East Austin, “House Zero” is currently under construction and features a 2,000+ square foot, 3 bedroom/2.5 bath home and a 350 square foot, 1 bedroom/1 bath accessory dwelling unit. Blending mid-century modernist ranch house aesthetics with the digital possibilities of additive construction, “House Zero” will be the first home of its kind and a major advancement in modern architecture.

“House Zero has allowed Lake|Flato to develop our ethos of human and nature-centric design with an entirely new framework,” said Ashley Heeren, Associate, Lake|Flato. “It’s been a thrill for our team to design this home of the future and explore new ways to create high-performance shelter that celebrates craftsmanship, seeks increased efficiency and eliminates steps in the construction process. This welcoming, practical home design expands the performance capabilities of 3D printing technology and is unlike any other home we’ve designed to date.”

ICON’s proprietary Vulcan technology produces resilient, single-story homes faster than conventional construction methods and with less waste and more design freedom. Designed and engineered from the ground up for volume 3D printing of homes with precision and speed, the new Vulcan construction system can 3D print homes and structures up to 3,000 square feet, is 1.5x larger and 2x faster than the previous ICON Vulcan 3D printers. Weighing in at 9,500 lbs, this mammoth of a robot is a digitally-native approach to home construction featuring an automated control system and is operated with an ICON-developed app for mobile devices.

Ballard continued, “If people fall in love with what we’re doing here, it turns out the Vulcan is the only construction system in the world capable of delivering this home and others like it. We are hopeful this catalyzes widespread enthusiasm and excitement for the future of construction and architecture. We’re getting ready to stand up manufacturing in our new facilities and begin larger scale projects in anticipation of such a response.”

To date, ICON has delivered two dozen 3D-printed homes and structures across the U.S. and Mexico, the most completed by any construction tech company. ICON broke into the mainstream housing market in early 2021 with the first 3D-printed homes for sale in America for developer 3Strands. Additional ICON projects are underway to deliver social housing, disaster relief housing and market-rate housing in addition to developing construction systems to create infrastructure and habitats on the Moon and eventually Mars with NASA.

www.iconbuild.com