Dozens of families living in El Salvador’s slums next year hope to swap their makeshift wooden shacks for concrete 3D-printed houses, in what developers say is the first project of its kind in the world.
Texas-based construction technology company ICON has unveiled a 33m2 house, which it printed and built in two days using a gigantic, portable 3D printer.
“Something that sounds like science fiction is real,” ICON cofounder Jason Ballard said. “We plan on printing a whole sort of development ... not just a 3D-print house, but a 3D-printed neighborhood.”
Globally, nearly 1 billion people live in slums, often in shacks made from scraps of metal and wood with dirt floors, according to the UN, which predicts that the world’s population is to reach 8 billion by 2030.
Innovators are racing to develop quick, cheap technology to address global housing needs. Dubai in 2016 opened 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, Texas — allowing someone to live in it.
“We had to build it to the highest international standards of building safety,” he said.
San Francisco-based New Story, which builds homes in developing nations, has partnered with ICON and plans to transport an updated version of the 3D printer to El Salvador and produce 55.7m2 to 74.3m2 versions of the house in 24 hours.
It plans to build about 100 homes for people in slums in the Central American nation within 18 months, while reducing building costs to about US$4,000 from US$10,000.
“It represents the chance for breakthrough technology to come to developing areas first,” New Story cofounder Alexandria Lafci said. “Having a safe home is truly a foundation.”
Living in a hazardous shack or tent is dangerous for people’s health and well-being, making it difficult to perform well at school or work, she said.
A mix of concrete, water and other materials are pumped through the 3D printer, which then pours out a hybrid of concrete mortar that hardens as it is printed, producing layers of structures used to build a house.
“The material has to have some pretty unique features. It has to flow out ... but it can’t flow like water, as you would just have a puddle of concrete and so it has to set pretty quickly,” Ballard said. “This is meant to be long-term, sustainable housing. Concrete is one of the most well-understood materials on Earth and it’s also one of the most resilient.”
Two possible sites where the 3D-printed homes could be built have been identified: one outside San Salvador and another about two hours away from the city, Lafci said.
Local authorities would grant the land on which the homes are to be built to slum-dwellers, she said.
Families taking part in the project would pay a small, interest-free mortgage, which should take between five and 12 years to clear, she said.
“When they pay off their mortgage, they own both the home and the land that the house sits on,” Lafci said. “Land ownership can be a stride to getting out of poverty.”
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