Icon, MLF announce plans to 3D-print homes for homeless in Texas

Austin, Texas-based Icon, a construction technologies company that uses robotics, software, and advanced materials in homebuilding, has announced its partnership with Mobile Loaves & Fishes (MLF), an Austin nonprofit that serves the area’s homeless.

With one of Icon’s new Vulcan II printers, a nearly 500-sq.-ft. Welcome Center was printed in less than 27 hours across several days at the heart of Phase II of MLF’s Community First! Village. The special project was commissioned by Cielo Property Group as part of its initiative to bring affordable housing to Austin and use real estate as a force for good.

The only neighborhood of its kind in the nation, Community First! Village provides affordable, permanent housing and a supportive community for men and women coming out of chronic homelessness.

“Icon is pushing the envelope and is technologically laying out a new way of looking at how we build homes,” said Alan Graham, founder and CEO of MLF. “Community First! Village is the perfect place on the planet to experiment with this approach. One of our desires is that this partnership with Icon will grow so deep that we’re able to leverage this technology to someday build all of our microhomes in future phases of the Village.”

Phase II of the development adds 24 acres to the Village. When the Village is complete and at full capacity, it will have an estimated 480 formerly homeless residents, which represents about 40% of Austin’s chronically homeless population.

Architecture designs created by Logan Architecture and structural engineering by Fort Structures for the next phase of Icon’s work at the Village are currently underway and will feature multiple home designs arranged to be printed simultaneously. The set of six total 3D-printed homes will break ground this year and for the first time ever, three homes will be 3D-printed at the same time. Icon’s 3D printing construction process makes use of robotics, automated material handling, advanced software, and a proprietary concrete to build homes quickly that are priced significantly lower than comparable conventional homes.