This is an updated version of a story first published on Oct. The original video can be viewed here. There was a time when futurists were predicting that the advent of 3D printing was going to change our lives.. What virtually no one predicted, though, was that there might soon be 3D printers that could construct almost the entire house.
But, as we first reported last fall, that's just what a 7-year-old Austin, Texas company called Icon is doing.. And if you believe Icon's mission-driven young founder, 3D printing could revolutionize how we build, help create affordable housing, and even allow us, to..
Sound out of this world? Take a look.. What you're watching is the building.. On this construction site, there's no hammering or sawing, just a nozzle squirting out concrete -- kind of like an oversized soft serve ice cream dispenser -- laying down the walls of a house one layer at a time. It's the brainchild of a year-old Texan who's rarely without his cowboy hat, Jason Ballard.
And so was this one. Does a concrete home printed by a robot have to look cold and industrial? Maybe not. Ballard gave us a peek at the first completed model home in what will soon be the world's first large community of 3D-printed houses — a hundred of them.. How exactly does 3D printing a house work? Well, it starts with this one-and-a-half-ton sack of dry concrete powder, which gets mixed with water, sand, and additives, and is then pumped to the robotic printer.
Conner Jenkins, Icon's manager of construction here, explained that the printer completes one layer called a "bead" every 30 minutes, by which time it's hardened enough to be ready for the next bead. Steel is added every 10th layer for strength. It takes about two weeks to print the full bead house. Jenkins gave me the controls.. Conner Jenkins: I think that's the most gorgeous bead I've ever seen.
