The Austin-based 3D printing architecture practice ICON is quickly becoming an innovator at the apex of futuristic architecture.

Launching in 2017, the practice has attracted nearly a billion dollars in funding from the likes of NASA and the US Government. It plans to build homes on the moon, no less, but is also tackling issues a little closer in proximity.

The practice is currently printing 3D modular homes out of a high-strength concrete, Lavacrete, to tackle the US’ affordable housing crisis. Its supply continues to multiply from project to project, crafting a 100-home community just north of their hometown of Austin, regarded currently as the largest printed community in the United States (pictured below).

ICON housing

ICON’s Initiative 99 sees the practice team up with other designers to craft 3D-printed homes that can be created for $99,000 or less. The systems developed through the Initiative will interestingly assist in a far more outlandish project, Project Olympus, which is investigating building 3D-printed structures on the moon.

Design concepts developed in conjunction with the esteemed Bjarke Ingels Group were released to the public in 2020. A $57 million contract was handed to the practice by NASA, which will see the designs developed and tested on the moon.

ICON is currently assessing the strength and durability of the dust and rock found on the moon that is able to be melted and turned into a material akin to ceramic. The practice has tested the material in a vacuum and will progress to a space simulator in due course, before being sent to the moon in 2026.

ICON space

ICON has multi-storey buildings in the works created entirely via 3D printing. The practice also hopes to speed up its production processes at a time when there is a labour shortage throughout the US.

"I feel like the future can be amazing," ICON CEO Jason Ballard tells CNN.

"But I'm also haunted by this understanding of history and human behaviour, because it's not guaranteed to be amazing. We have to make it so. And we're going to have to take some risks to make it so."

Ballard’s goal for ICON is 3D construction at scale. The winning designs of the Initiative 99 program will be released for free, giving homeowners around the world the ability to create off-the-plan designs anywhere in the world providing they have the tools.

Jarrod Reedie

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