ICON and BIG print 3D the entire neighborhood in Austin!

Decisively, they will not leave each other. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and ICON’s Danish Architects, ” The first company in the United States to issue a three-dimensional printed house permit », By October 2020, it had already delivered the first lunar habitat to be 3D-printed and built by robots in collaboration with NASA. While targeting the moon does not scare them, it also seems to bind. The two companies have actually announced a new joint venture this time around, but it’s interesting: to bring the new district out of the ground, printed in 100% 3D, in one of the cities that has seen the strongest growth. In the United States, Austin is the capital of Texas.

The story begins last August. Lenor, an American construction company, is one of the investors around the desk when ICON raises $ 207 million. The large Florida-based team is forced to take a growing manpower and material scarcity and environmental turnaround so they can gain knowledge of Texas start-ups in 3D printing. This guarantees higher profitability, higher efficiency and fewer delays than conventional construction.

Lenar did not wait long to use the new tool at his disposal, and quickly ordered a hundred homes from Icon. This is the largest project of 3D printed constructions – to date. Using software, printers and robots that do not exclude ICON from hiring an architect, an entire environment emerges from the ground. It is finally big, loves innovative projects and is well known to the young American company, which was chosen to imagine this brand new district.

Houses fitted with photovoltaic panels on the roof are manufactured using the Vulcan construction system developed by ICON, which allows houses up to 278 m² to print to quality, durability and resistance to adverse weather conditions. Very serious established by the International Building Code. ICON also argues that the ingredients used – the company does not share the recipe … – ” They are much stronger and more resistant over time than conventional materials .. So a “super concrete”, which gives us beautiful flute walls.

Vulcan printer.

If one believes that this future village is only a visual object of ICON, BIG and Lennar knowledge, it will end up at the bottom of a drawer because it is very ambitious (or very soon), and vice versa. : The first stone laying – metaphorically – is planned for 2022. It’s tomorrow!