This Entire Village Was Built By a Single 3D Printer
The houses were constructed to be earthquake-resilient.
There’s no doubt that we love 3D-printed homes like these seven listed here. And we are not the only ones it seems, as last month we brought you news of an entire street of 3D-printed homes in Texas.
Now, news has surfaced of an entire neighborhood of 3D-printed homes in Nacajuca, Mexico. Even better the houses were built for underprivileged families, according to Design Taxi.
The homes are beautiful to look at but that does not change the fact that they are extremely resilient and sturdy. Nacajuca was hit with a magnitude 7.4 earthquake after the houses were built and the houses were left standing without a scratch.
That’s one of the many advantages of 3D printing.
In order to make these houses a reality three firms had to collaborate: New Story, a San Francisco-based not-for-profit “pioneering solutions to end global homelessness”; Échale, a social housing production company from Mexico; and Icon, a Texas-based construction technologies company “dedicated to revolutionizing homebuilding and making dignified housing the standard for people throughout the world.”
The homes are one story high and each measures approximately 500 square feet. They each have two bedrooms, a kitchen, and a bathroom.
Building them was no easy feat however despite the 3D printer used being engineered for tough projects. The 3D printer for homes, called the Vulcan II, is designed to work under the constraints that are common in rural locations, but the journey has not been easy.
Power can be unpredictable and local rainfall has often flooded access roads to the construction site. “This printer, designed to tackle housing shortages for vulnerable populations, is the first of its kind,” wrote New Story in a press release.
Francesco Piazzesi, Échale’s chief executive, said to the New York Times that the futuristic printer used for these constructions looked like something out of a RoboCop movie. But what truly matters is that it did a really great job of bringing steady and sturdy housing to where it is needed most.
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