Iconic construction
Dmitrii Blium
Company introduction
Techcrunch reports that on August 24, an Austin, Texas-based construction startup, ICON, has raised a massive $207 million investment round led by Norwest Venture Partners.
ICON was founded in late 2017. In March 2018, it launched with the first permitted 3D-printed home in the U.S. That 350-square-foot (32 m2) house took about 48 hours (at 25% speed) to print. ICON purposely chose concrete as a material because, as co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard put it, "It's one of the most resilient materials on Earth."
Since then, the startup has delivered more than two dozen 3D-printed homes and structures across the U.S. and Mexico. More than half of those homes have been for the homeless or those in chronic poverty.
Projects
ICON has several ongoing projects worth mentioning.
The startup entered the mainstream housing market in early 2021 with what it said were the first 3D-printed homes for sale in the U.S. for developer 3Strands in Austin, Texas. Two of the four homes are under contract. The remaining two homes will hit the market on August 31.
Recently, ICON debuted its new Exploration Series of homes. The first home in the series, "House Zero," was optimized and designed specifically for 3D printing. It is currently under construction and features a 2,000 square-foot (186 m2), 3 bedroom/2.5 bath home and a 350 sqft, 1 bedroom/1 bath accessory dwelling unit.
ICON also has two ongoing projects with NASA.
To prepare for long-duration missions to Mars, ICON uses additive construction to 3D print a Martian analog habitat designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group at NASA's Johnson Space Center. 3D-printed habitat is known as Mars Dune Alpha. The 1,700 square-foot (158 m2) structure will simulate a realistic Mars habitat to support long-duration, exploration-class space missions.
Project Olympus represents ICON's effort to develop a space-based autonomous construction system for future exploration of the Moon and "to imagine humanity’s home on another world." "Our goal is to have ICON tech on the Moon in the next decade," Ballard said. In partnership with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, ICON is testing lunar soil simulant with various processing and printing technologies.
Technology
ICON Vulcan is a large-scale construction 3D printer capable of printing homes and structures up to 3,000 square feet (279 m2).
ICON says the Vulcan can produce resilient, single-story homes faster than conventional methods and with less waste and more design freedom. A tablet-based operating system controls print operations. It translates floor plans into print jobs and then directs both Vulcan and Magma.
Magma is an automated material delivery system for use in 3D-printed additive construction. The system automatically mixes the ICON's proprietory material, Lavacrete, with additives and water depending on current site weather conditions. Then supplies the ready-to-print Lavacrete to the Vulcan.
Future
ICON has seen impressive financial growth, with 400% revenue growth nearly every year since inception. According to Ballard, the market has got a "radical increase in demand for 3D-printed homes and structures." The new investment funds will go toward more construction of 3D-printed homes, "rapid scaling and R&D," further space-based tech advancements, and creating "a lasting societal impact on housing issues," Ballard said.
The company is on the way to deliver tens of thousands of homes per year. It believes its construction technology may massively impact the housing shortage in the U.S. and around the globe.
💡 Article on Techcrunch
🌐 ICON website