This 3D printed house was unveiled today at SXSW in Austin, TX. A cement house like this – 650 square feet, single story – takes just 12-24 hours to "print."
It's "the first permitted, 3D-printed home created specifically for the developing world," says New Story, the non-profit for international housing, who has partnered with the 3D-printed housing construction company ICON to create 100 of these homes for low-income people in El Salvador by next year if all goes as planned.
According to The Verge:
Using the Vulcan printer, ICON can print an entire home for $10,000 and plans to bring costs down to $4,000 per house. "It's much cheaper than the typical American home," Ballard says. It's capable of printing a home that's 800 square feet, a significantly bigger structure than properties pushed by the tiny home movement, which top out at about 400 square feet. In contrast, the average New York apartment is about 866 square feet.
Not only is the ICON/New Story partnership making really affordable housing, but it's also making really cool-looking houses. Take a look inside:
This isn't the first house to ever be 3D printed, but others before it "are printed in a warehouse, or they look like Yoda huts," Jason Ballard, co-founder of ICON, told The Verge. "For this venture to succeed, they have to be the best houses."