Can 3D-printers make cheap homes for the world’s poor?
Solving the problem of cheap housing could be fixed with 3D printing technology, says US company
Dozens of families living in El Salvador’s slums hope to swap their makeshift wooden shacks for concrete 3D-printed houses next year, in what developers say is the first project of its kind in the world.
ICON, a Texas-based construction technology company has unveiled a 350 square foot house, which it printed and built in two days using a gigantic, portable 3D-printer.
“Something that sounds like science fiction is real,” said Jason Ballard, ICON’s co-founder. “We plan on printing a whole sort of development. not just a 3D-print house but a 3D-printed neighbourhood.”
Globally nearly 1 billion people live in slums, often in shacks made from scraps of metal and wood with dirt floors, according to the United Nations, which predicts the world’s population will reach 8 billion by 2030.
Innovators are racing to develop quick, cheap technology to address global housing needs. Dubai opened in 2016 what it said was the world’s first functioning 3D-printed office building.
Ballard said ICON’s house is the first to be built on site and receive a permit – from the US city of Austin – allowing someone to live in it.