A robotics company has 3D printed nearly 100 homes in Texas

It took almost two years but the planned community of homes made with a giant 3D printer in Georgetown, Texas is almost complete.

Reuters reports that the homes, which are part of a community called Wolf Ranch, were built with a giant 3D printer called Vulcan that is 45 feet wide and weighs more than 4.75 tons. The project is part of a joint venture with 3D printing developer ICON and real estate company Lennar. It started in November 2022 and workers are on track to complete their goal of building 100 homes with Vulcan by the end of the summer. Homeowners have already started moving into some of the completed 3D printed homes that range from $450,000 to $600,000. More than a quarter of the houses have been sold.

The ICON 3D printer uses a mixture of concrete powder, water, sand and other materials to place stacks of tube-shaped concrete to build the walls and eventually the entire house. The houses are single-story houses with three to four bedrooms that take about three weeks to print. The foundation and metal roof were made in the old fashioned way by human workers.

Once printed, the walls look like giant corduroy ropes, but they are designed to be resilient and durable even in the worst weather conditions. They are water resistant and energy efficient. The modern farm-style designs for the houses were provided by the architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, according to ICON’s press release. The construction process is also simplified by the workflow. ICON senior project manager Conner Jenkins told Reuters that formation started with five separate teams but has since been reduced to one team and one robot printer.

The only downside is the thickness of the walls interferes with WiFi signals. Residents have had to use mesh internet routers with broadcast signals available throughout the home instead of a single router.

ICON isn’t just using its giant 3D printer to make homes on Earth. NASA is reportedly interested in using the technology to build structures on the moon for its Artemis Moon probe, which is scheduled to launch its first crew in September 2025.