Archinect - News

AI designer and multi-story 3D printer among ICON technologies unveiled at SXSW

2024-03-12T16:00:00-04:00

Construction technologies company ICON has unveiled a suite of new technologies at SXSW, including a multi-story robotic construction system and an AI-powered design system.

At a SXSW event dubbed ‘Domus Ex Machina,’ the company also presented a new low-carbon building material for 3D printing alongside a digital catalog for residential 3D printed architecture containing more than 60 designs.

Phoenix multi-story printer. Image credit: ICON

“In the future, I believe nearly all construction will be done by robots, and nearly all construction-related information will be processed and managed by AI systems,” said Jason Ballard, ICON Co-Founder and CEO, announcing the new systems. “It is clear to me that this is the way to cut the cost and time of construction in half while making homes that are twice as good and more faithfully express the values and hopes of the people who live in them.”

Phoenix multi-story printer. Image credit: ICON

Among the new technologies unveiled is Phoenix, ICON...

ICON to work with DARPA on a framework for lunar architecture

2023-12-11T12:12:00-05:00

The construction technology company ICON has been chosen by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) among 14 partners to build a framework for lunar architecture. The LunA-10 Lunar Architecture Study will run for seven months with the aim to “create a framework for interoperable commercial lunar architecture that will help to guide lunar research and investment over the next ten years.”

The 14 companies have been chosen for their prior engagement with the space industry, whose products and services may form the foundational elements for a future lunar economy. Aside from ICON’s focus on construction, the group also contains specialists across power, communications, and mobility.

“By participating in LunA-10, we can understand what inputs are going to be available, when, at what cost, and in what quantities,” said Evan Jensen, ICON’s Vice President o...

ICON, Lennar, and BIG reveal first completed Wolf Ranch model home in Texas

2023-07-21T17:55:00-04:00

The first 3D printed model home concept Wolf Ranch development, built by Lennar and ICON and co-designed by BIG, has been completed in Georgetown, Texas.

The initial of what will eventually turn into a 100-home development outside the rapidly-expanding state capital showcases one of eight different floorplans, which range in scale from 1,574 to 2,112 square feet, offering buyers three-and four-bedroom options within an expected price range of $475,990 to $559,990.

Image screen capture from ICON-3D Tech Wolf Ranch Trailer.

Striated walls made using ICON’s Vulcan 3D printing technology and patented Lavacrete material define the residence’s design, which comes complete with polished concrete floors, a rooftop photovoltaic array, and fixtures and furnishings.

Image screen capture from ICON-3D Tech Wolf Ranch Trailer.

The remainder of the development, which features a playful variety of forms derived from the 24 different elevation styles offered by the company, is nearing completion aft...

BIG and ICON reveal new 3D printed collaboration with hotelier Liz Lambert in Texas

2023-03-08T15:05:00-05:00

BIG and prominent lawyer-turned-hotelier Liz Lambert have announced they will be teaming up with ICON on a new high-end hospitality project in Marfa, Texas.

The project will reshape Lambert’s 21-acre El Cosmico resort from a collection of disparate yurts, tents, and other small structures into a new, 65-acre development featuring dome-like parabolic dwellings made using ICON’s patented 3D printing technology.

El Cosmico. Image courtesy ICON

Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts will also benefit from the collaboration in the form of a new 3D printed performance pavilion that “reflects architectural design themes — cosmic organizations, perfect geometries, and organic forms” of El Cosmico. The new resort itself will be a mix of two-, three-, and four-bedroom homes between 1,200 and 2,200 square feet each, defined by organic curves and large arches. BIG says this is a ”primordial architectural language that can only be achieved by 3D printing.”

El Cosmico. Image courtesy ICON

El ...

ICON receives NASA funding to create 3D printing methods using materials from the Moon and Mars

2022-11-30T14:26:00-05:00

3D printing company ICON has been awarded funding by NASA to develop lunar surface construction systems. The $57.2 million contract was awarded under NASA’s Small Business Innovation Research program and will see ICON develop “space-based construction technology” with the aim of creating humanity’s “first-ever construction on another planetary body.”

Concept render of ICON's proposed system. Image credit: ICON

The technology system, which ICON names Olympus, seeks to primarily use local Lunar and Martian resources as building materials. As part of this, the company plans on using lunar regolith samples brought back from the Apollo missions as well as regolith replicas to further understand their mechanical behavior. ICON’s hardware and software will also be tested in a lunar gravity simulation flight to study their potential performance beyond Earth.

If successful, the system may be used to create critical infrastructure on the Moon, including landing pads, blast shields, and roads. ...

BIG and ICON’s community of 100 3D printed homes begins construction in Texas

2022-11-10T14:28:00-05:00

Construction has commenced on the largest community of 3D printed residences in the United States. The hundred-home 'Wolf Ranch' development was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and 3D printing technology group ICON and is being constructed in the city of Georgetown, Texas, just north of Austin.

Concept image courtesy of ICON / BIG

The scheme is comprised of eight floorplans ranging from 1,574 to 2,112 square feet, split between three and four-bedroom units. The interior material palette includes printed wall textures and polished concrete floors, while the homes' exteriors will be chosen from 24 elevation styles. The roof of each home will also include solar panels.

Concept image courtesy of ICON / BIG

The interior and exterior walls will be delivered using a fleet of 3D printing robots, which the team believes will yield less waste and more design freedom. The development partners also see the accelerated construction process behind the community as a precedent for addressing the ...

ICON's latest military project will produce the largest 3D printed structures in North America

2022-04-11T18:01:00-04:00

The Department of Defense (DOD) has once again teamed up with construction technology company ICON to produce three residential structures for the Fort Bliss military installation in El Paso. At 5,700 square feet apiece, the DOD says they will represent the largest 3D printed structures in the Americas once construction is completed.

Companies had been prevented from even applying for DOD contracts until a recent change to the federal Unified Facilities Criteria (or UFC) allowed for the inclusion of 3D printing technology companies like the Austin-based startup, which immediately produced a design for a Marine Corps barracks facility at Texas’ Camp Swift Training Center.

Image courtesy of Logan Architecture.

Leapfrogging off of this past experience, ICON will again incorporate its patented Vulcan printer and Lavacrete material to create three separate barracks, designed by Austin-based Logan Architecture, that will be realized in a period of about ten months.

Photo courtesy of ICON

“T...

Inside ICON’s curving 3D printed home by Lake|Flato in Austin

2022-03-02T11:59:00-05:00

ICON has unveiled a completed 3D printed home in Austin, Texas designed by Lake|Flato. Named “House Zero,” the home adopts a “mid-century modernist ranch house aesthetic” while also exploring how 3D printing can enhance resilience and sustainability.

The project comprises of a main three-bedroom home spanning over 2000 square feet, and a one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit spanning 350 square feet. The walls of the home were constructed using “Lavacrete,” a 3D printed cement-based material, with combines with insulation and steel reinforcement to form the external envelope. The team believes that the thermal mass properties of Lavacrete will enhance energy efficiency by slowing heat transfer, increasing insulation, and providing a more airtight envelope.

Photo credit: Casey Dunn

The curved 3D printed walls also serve as a strong design feature throughout the home, with rounded corners creating soft, natural circulation routes through the home. “While the organic nature of the 3D-pri...

BIG and ICON team up once again on a 3D printed hundred-home design for Texas’ rapidly changing state capital

2021-10-27T12:10:00-04:00

As part of the firm’s evolving partnership with ICON, BIG has once again teamed up with the Texas-based manufacturer to design a 100-home neighborhood in the tech company’s adopted hometown of Austin.

Proffered as a potential solution to the dearth of housing units in the U.S. market, the homes will be produced via ICON’s Vulcan 3D printer technology and touted as providing more longevity than traditional concrete masonry housing.

The plan in many ways resembles the classic American subdivisons that cropped up after World War II. America is facing an unprecedented housing affordability crisis that has disproportionately affected one’s ability to buy a home across multiple demographic levels. BIG announced a new affordable housing initiative called NABR over the summer that promises to address some of the same issues. 2020 saw the first year in which the primary means of homeownership in the U.S. went from income to inheritance.

Image courtesy ICON

“The things we use everyday, essenti...

ICON's new 3D printed homes in Austin are “safer, more resilient homes”

2021-08-31T10:47:00-04:00

ICON has released photographs of their completed multi-family homes in Austin, Texas which make use of 3D printed construction methods. The four homes, situated in East Austin, were built for Kansas City developer 3Strands, and designed by Logan Architecture.

Image via ICON

The ground floors of the houses were built using ICON’s 3D-printed Vulcan construction system, while the upper floors were constructed using a traditional timber frame system. Other features of note include energy-efficient tankless water heaters, standing seam metal sliding and roof panels, and internal quartz and Carrera marble countertops.

Image via ICON

Speaking during the announcement of the project’s completion, ICON pointed to the potential for 3D printed technology to offer “safer, more resilient homes that are designed to withstand fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built homes.”

Kitchen area. Image via ICON

The homes’ internal finishes and fixtures were curated by Aus...

BIG's 3D-printed Mars simulation habitat is taking shape

2021-08-09T12:23:00-04:00

Images have been revealed of a 3D-printed structure being built to help simulate life on Mars. Named Mars Dune Alpha, the habitat was designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group for NASA and advanced construction developer ICON, intended to form part of future long-duration, explorative science missions. The 1,700 square-foot structure is currently being built at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, where it will host a simulation environment for future space explorers.

Rendering. Image: BIG / ICON / NASA

The habitat has been designed along varying levels of privacy. Four private crew quarters are located on one end of the habitat, while dedicated work stations, medical stations, and food-growing stations are located at the opposite end. Shared living spaces will connect the two zones in the middle. Varying ceiling heights, responding to an arching shell structure, accentuate the unique experiences and uses of each area to avoid a sense of monotony or user fatigue. Meanwhile, a mix o...

ICON enters 3D-printed multi-home housing market in Texas

2021-03-09T14:32:00-05:00

After completing two dozen 3D-printed structures across central Texas, printing a small community for impoverished residents in Mexico, and teaming up up with BIG and SEArch+ to create an off-world building system for the Moon, construction technology company ICON is now breaking into the mainstream housing development market: in collaboration with Kansas City developer 3Strands and Austin-based Logan Architecture, a multi-home ensemble of four buildings (according to the company, the first of its kind in the U.S.) has been steadily growing in an East Austin neighborhood.

Dubbed East 17th Street Residences, the two to four bedroom, 1,000 to 2,000 sq ft homes all have a 3D-printed first floor using ICON's proprietary technology and material, a cementitious material called Lavacrete. The printing portion took about 5 to 7 days per home.

Site plan with all 4 residences

Floor plans of the 4-bedroom, 4-bathroom, 1,928-sf Treehouse Residence.

With printing completed and finish-out underwa...

ICON teams up with BIG and SEArch+ for Project Olympus, an off-world construction system for the Moon

2020-10-28T17:44:00-04:00

Icon, an Austin, Texas-based developer of construction technologies, received funding to research and develop a space-based construction system that could support future exploration of the moon. It has engaged two architecture firms as partners for the project: Denmark-based BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and New York City-based SEArch+.

Construction tech developer ICON secures $35M in funding, BIG among investors

2020-08-20T14:02:00-04:00

ICON, developer of advanced construction technologies spanning from robotics, to software, and building materials, has completed a $35M series A funding round of financing led by Moderne Ventures. Among the series A round investors is Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG).

"We believe additive manufacturing will play a transformative role in the future of construction and with our investment and partnership with ICON we can contribute actively to this ongoing transformation," said Bjarke Ingels, BIG's Founder and Creative Director in a statement. "The design industry has become revolutionized through the adoption of Computer Aided Design and Building Information Management...Robotic manufacturing will enable us to eliminate the loss in translation from data to matter and allow us to fabricate homes at great speed, with less waste, and with higher accuracy than today."

ICON. Six Home Project Community First Village. 3D-Print...

ICON & company fight homelessness in Mexico with 3D-printed village

2019-12-13T19:08:00-05:00

New Story, a non-profit pioneering solutions to end global homelessness, in partnership with Mexico-based ÉCHALE, have announced "the world's first 3D-printed community" in Mexico. The first set of homes have been revealed. Each coming in at 500 square feet, the innovative structures were printed in a total time of about 24 hours over the course of several days.

ICON printed the homes using their Vulcan II 3D-printer, which is designed to function in rural areas. Families living in makeshift, unsafe shelters and living in extreme poverty will be granted the homes and reside in the village which is due to grow to a total of 50 printed dwellings.

Each will feature two bedrooms, a living room, kitchen, and bath, and were designed in collaboration with the future residents who will occupy them. With safety in mind, the structures were engineered above the regulated standard of safety to ensure longevity and security in the seismic zone of Tabasco, Mexico.

Affordable 3D-printed housing model debuts at SXSW

2018-03-12T18:56:00-04:00

ICON has developed a method for printing a single-story 650-square-foot house out of cement in only 12 to 24 hours, a fraction of the time it takes for new construction. If all goes according to plan, a community made up of about 100 homes will be constructed for residents in El Salvador next year. The company has partnered with New Story, a nonprofit that is vested in international housing solutions.

Today at SXSW, The first model is scheduled to be unveiled by Austin-based startup ICON. The company uses the Vulcan 3D printer in order to generate an entire home for $10,000 with plans to bring costs down to $4,000 per house. Using concrete rather than plastic, the model features a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and a curved porch.

Detail of concrete layers on 3D printed house by ICON, in Austin, TX. Image: Icon.

Once testing is complete on their model, the Vulcan printer will be moved to El Salvador to begin construction. ICON also intends to build homes in the US.

Rendering of 3D-printing houses using the Vulcan 3D printer. Image: ICON.

Storefront is looking for NYC's next iconic image

2017-12-04T18:57:00-05:00

What model best represents new visions and values of New York City? Cast your vote today for the new icons of New York and influence which souvenirs will represent the city next. The top three winners will be presented to the Mayor Bill de Blasio as New York City's newest icons.

Midnight Commercial by KIT BKLYN

Icons will be selected from The Storefront for Art and Architecture's exhibition Souvenirs: New New York Icons, open through December 9th. This is the second iteration of Storefront’s model show and includes commissions of 59+ objects that redefine New York's iconic imagery. Drawing inspiration from each of the city's Community Districts, over 59 architects, artists, and designers have reimagined the referential images forming the global perception of the city and have proposed new understandings of the urban experience.

Vote for your top three icons here.

Reflecting on an era of architectural icons

2017-05-01T13:54:00-04:00

And still they come. The Gherkins, Shards, Walkie-Talkies, Cheesegraters, Scalpels, giant iPhones, Bird’s Nest stadiums, flying tabletops, big pants. Like the conveyor belt of consumer items that older readers will remember in Bruce Forsyth’s Generation Game, the supply of funny-looking buildings with funny names seems never-ending. Nicknames are converted into brands; satire and marketing merge.

There has been an era of architectural invention like few others, combined with a sense of hollowness, the feeling of not knowing what it’s all for.

Gateway Arch 'Biography' Reveals Complex History Of An American Icon

2013-05-28T15:04:00-04:00

More than decade after Abbott's imaginative drawing, Eero Saarinen submitted a design for a gleaming metal curve to a competition, and the saga of the Arch began. Campbell, a history professor and the co-director of the Wendell Ford Public Policy Research Center at the University of Kentucky, joins Scott Simon to talk about the controversy around the design, the African-American residents who were displaced to build the Arch and whether the monument really symbolizes the opening of the West.

DawnTown Announces Landmark Miami Competition Winners

2013-05-09T18:08:00-04:00

Three winners and one honorable mention have been announced in DawnTown Miami's 2013 ideas competition entitled Landmark Miami. This year’s theme focused on how cities are instantly identified by the individual structures within them. [...] architects and designers were tasked with creating an iconic architectural piece that contributes to the image of Miami.