Housing: Plans unveiled for a 3D-PRINTED community of 100 homes in the US

Plans have been unveiled for a 3D-printed community of 100 new homes in the Austin area, Texas -- which would become the largest development of its kind in the United States to date when construction begins next year. The project is the result of a collaboration between real estate and homebuilding firm Lennar and ICON, a construction engineering company specialising in the development of large-scale 3D-printing technology. They are joined by the architectural firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, who will be designing the houses which will be produced using so-called'additive manufacturing' -- in which objects are printed up one single layer at a time. According to ICON, their'Vulcan construction system' can produce resilient, energy-efficient homes both faster and with less waste than conventional building approaches, while also offering more freedom of design. Buildings and other structures can be built as large as 3,000 square feet using the system, they added.