Could 3D Printed Houses be the Solution to Material and Labor Shortages?

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter.  

3D-printed barracks on Texas military base offer hope for this technology’s potential to provide faster builds with significant cost and labor savings. 

You can truly 3D print almost anything. Recently, ICON, an Austin-based construction technology company, claims they have created the largest 3D-printed structure in North America through their partnership with the Texas Military Department.  

The 3D printed building is a 3,000-square-foot barracks on a Texas military base, the result of a project STRATFI. The New York Times reports that ICON has delivered more than two dozen 3D printed homes across the United States and Mexico, from social housing to market-rate real estate. 3D printed homes could also make an appearance on the moon and Mars according to Space.com. ICON is working with NASA to develop space-based construction systems that could possibly be inhabited. 

This venture offers a glimmer of hope for 3D printing to be the new form of quick builds. Replacing time-consuming traditional forms of construction, the military seeks to use the technology to help communities respond to natural disasters and to be used in expeditionary areas according to Construction Dive. 

A lead with the Defense Innovation Unit, Lieutenant Colonel Alex Goldberg, told Reuters in reference to the barracks created, that the building process is five times faster than traditional approaches and has “significant” cost and labor savings.  

According to ABC News Go, backers of 3D printing say that these processes can reduce the need for human labor at a time when home builders are struggling to find enough skilled workers to meet the housing demand. One of the primary advantages to 3D printing is how dramatically it reduces the need for on-site labor, making it a good solution for increasing labor shortages.  

3D printing won’t completely replace construction jobs, rather the technology is being looked at as a useful tool for the industry. Chief sustainability officer and co-founder of Mighty Buildings Sam Ruben told BlueBeam that, “We need a system that really takes advantage of the people who are here and also has the potential to attract a new generation of workers into the industry. We’re not trying to get rid of the existing labor force or replace those workers; we’re really trying to help address the fact that we just don’t have enough people.” 

It remains to be seen how widespread this technology will become, but with more projects like barracks on a Texas military base, it becomes more and more clear that 3D-printed buildings might be the solution to labor and housing shortages and more sustainable building practices. For now, 3D printing remains an innovative solution to increase productivity and help address fewer people on the construction site as the need for housing grows larger.

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Photo credit: Construction Dive