ICON’s mission is to allow you to download and print your home in 24 hours for half the cost. We’re aiming to begin printing homes in the U.S. beginning in 2019.

We’re glad you’re interested in the future of homebuilding and considering a 3D-printed home. While we are not currently working with individuals, we encourage you to sign-up for our newsletter so we can keep you updated on our progress and printing within the U.S. and beyond.

I know it sounds crazy, but it would be a lot crazier to fly sheet rock and 2x4’s to MARS. There are distinct advantages for leveraging 3D printing in space, namely that there isn’t a need for oxygen or food and local materials can be utilized.

ICON is actively pursuing research on printing technologies for off-planet space habitats. We look forward to having more to say on this in the future!

We’ve been tinkering for about two years, and actively in stealth mode creating the Vulcan printer and our first material formulation for about 9 months.

The three founders each started working on it independently about two years ago.  Jason has spent the last decade+ of his life starting and growing a company called TreeHouse, whose whole mission revolves around sustainability and health in the built environment.  After working on literally thousands of homes, Jason began saying to himself, "Surely there is a better way to build homes that is more affordable, less wasteful, and more energy efficient than conventional building methods."  Approaches to construction hadn't changed in so long it was like people had forgotten how to even imagine a different way. That began a months-long study and research project (including prefab, insulated concrete forms, SIP panels, advanced framing, robotic bricklaying, architectural fungus, etc.) that landed Jason on 3D printing as the most promising technology to create a true revolution that checked all the boxes he cared about.  He re-connected with his TreeHouse co-founder and friend Evan Loomis, and the two decided to start working on it and build a prototype in a warehouse in Austin on the weekends. Meanwhile, a fresh college-grad and engineer named Alex LeRoux was working on a similar project in Houston. His prototype was actually able to print a mortar-based tiny home. Eventually, after hearing rumors of each other for months, Alex and Jason met at TreeHouse and decided to start working together.

Fast forward to today... ICON is a for-profit construction technologies company using robotics, software, and advanced materials to reinvent the homebuilding industry.  The 3D printer dubbed the "Vulcan I" is the first product/project and was developed in collaboration with New Story, the non-profit bringing homes to underserved populations. Together we have achieved the first site-printed, permitted 3D printed house in America.  It is truly the first of its kind.

Yes. The first 3D-printed home in Austin, TX was printed all on-site and is a permitted, permanent structure.

Beyond torrential downpours in Austin over the printing time period, the challenges of 3D printing a home that is the first to be permitted in the U.S. included mostly structural engineering and foundation adjustments, as the city had never seen a building of its kind.

The ICON team printed the full home using the Vulcan 3D printer and once completed, our partners at Alchemy Builders constructed the finishing touches including the roof, windows, doors and electrical/plumbing with conventional methods.

ICON’s leadership team includes:

• Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO

• Alex Le Roux, co-founder and CTO

• Evan Loomis, co-founder

We recently closed a $9M seed round led by Oakhouse Partners with additional investors including D.R. Horton, the largest homebuilder by volume in the U.S. since 2002; Emaar, the largest developer in the Middle East and creator of the tallest building in the world; Capital Factory, Texas’ premier start-up accelerator; CAZ Investments; Cielo Property Group; Engage Ventures; MicroVentures; Saturn Five; Shadow Ventures; Trust Ventures; Verbena Road Holdings and Vulcan Capital among others.

We are well underway with our project with our non-profit partner, New Story, as well as developing the Vulcan II and continued research and development.

We’re excited to hear from you. Please fill out our contact form and someone will be in touch.

The printer, dubbed the "Vulcan", is the first of ICON's construction technologies to be unveiled in partnership with New Story, and was designed specifically for the developing world. The mobile printer fully prints on-site and does not require printing in an off-site location nor does it need to piece together different portions. The entire home is  printed seamlessly and it sustainable, produces nearly zero waste and highly durable, low maintenance, and energy-efficient to operate.

The Vulcan I is a gantry-style printer on rails. We have several patents pending on both the hardware and materials.

Conventional construction is slow, fragmented, wasteful, and has poor thermal properties which increase energy use, increase operating costs, and decrease comfort.  Also, conventional materials like drywall and particle board are some of the least resilient materials ever invented. By contrast, 3D printing offers the following:

1. Speed

2. Lack of manual labor

3. Concrete is a well understood, affordable, resilient material

4. Concrete has a high thermal mass (comfort & energy efficiency)

5. 3D Printing produces a continuous, unbroken thermal envelope (comfort & energy efficiency)

6. Replaces multiple systems of the home in one technology (foundation, structure, insulation, interior & exterior sheathing, moisture barrier, finished surfaces, etc.)

7. Near zero waste

8. Tremendous design freedom (curves and slopes are no more challenging or expensive than straight, plumb lines).

Size: 20 ft X 11 ft X *infinite length* of build volume since the printer is set on tracks

Speed: The printer will be able to print a single-story, 600-800 square foot home in less than 24 hours for $4,000.

Design: Nearly any 2D floor plan imaginable can be printed.

The printer uses a proprietary small-aggregate cementitious material (also known as a mortar). Since the mix has relatively easy to find constituent parts, local procurement is expected to be feasible.

As much as we’d love to say we invented concrete...we did not. Concrete formulations from one to another can be as different as people. We did develop a proprietary formula that is unique for our current and future printing projects.

This first printer developed specifically for the developing world is meant to be mobile and weighs around 2,000 lbs.

The code that the printer needs to print is called gcode. Then the portion of the printer where material is fed is called the "hopper" and has a level detecting switch to measure how full the container is of the material to add/adjust as necessary.

• New Story and ICON unveil first permitted 3D-printed home created for the developing world on March 12th at a private event in Austin, TX.

• ICON is a construction technologies company dedicated to revolutionizing homebuilding. Through their proprietary 3D printing technology and cutting-edge materials, ICON provides sustainable solutions to a number of our world’s most pressing issues, including the pandemic of homelessness in the developing world, the difficulty of constructing off-planet space habitats, and the exorbitant cost of customized housing.

• New Story is a non-profit focused on providing safe homes for families living in slums around the globe. To date, they have built more than 850 homes for families in Haiti, El Salvador, Mexico, and Bolivia.

• ICON has created the first 3D printer developed specifically for underserved populations with partner New Story in order to provide higher quality homes and impact more families faster at a lower cost.

• The printer, dubbed The Vulcan, has successfully printed the first permitted, 3D home, built to US housing standards, in Austin, Texas.

• It is designed to work under the constraints that are common in places like Haiti and rural El Salvador, where New Story works. Power can be unpredictable, potable water is not a guarantee, and technical assistance is sparse.

• The 3D printer has been under wraps for the last 8 months during building, testing, and development.

• ICON and New Story believe 3D printing technologies are set to transform global homelessness and bring more homes to more people faster than ever.

• In the future, New Story plans to open this breakthrough technology from ICON to other nonprofits and governments around the world that are focused on providing safe shelter for underserved families.

• The high-powered innovators behind ICON and the first global initiative with New Story include a cross section of engineers, environmentalists, designers and entrepreneurs.  ICON and New Story worked in close partnership with several other organizations to develop the Vulcan printer including Pump Studios, Yaskawa Electric, Alchemy Builders, TreeHouse, Keep Real Estate, Andrew Logan Architecture, Linestar Automation and The University of Texas.

Through mutual friends and business associates, co-founders Jason and Evan, met New Story’s CEO, Brett Hagler, in 2017 and quickly realized they had a united mission to transform human’s most basic need: shelter. New Story was looking for an innovation that could bring more homes to more families, faster than ever. ICON was developing the construction technologies and 3D printer that was fit for the important work. About 8 months later, the first permitted, 3D printed home was unveiled in Austin, TX and is the proof-of-concept they needed to move into their second phase of taking the mobile 3D printer into El Salvador to print the first community of homes for those in need.

133 million people live in slums in Latin America. Globally, 1.3 billion people live in slums. That’s 14% of the world population, and growing. New Story is focused on impacting those 1.3 billion in slums by providing safe housing.

New Story works with families who live without one of the most basic needs – safe shelter. The majority of families live on less than $2 per day. Additionally, in the countries of work (Haiti, El Salvador, Bolivia and Mexico) families have no support system to fall back on. “Homeless shelters” and similar services for the most part do not exist in countries where so many are faced with these issues.

The printed homes are expected to last as long or longer than standard Concrete Masonry Unit (CMU) built homes. The homes are built to the International Building Code (IBC) structural code standard.

Families who receive a home through New Story’s program own the home and maintain it on their own. Homes are purposefully simple without unnecessary items to reduce maintenance costs.

New Story currently provides approximately 4 jobs per home using traditional construction. It is currently estimated that the printer will reduce the number of jobs but local labor will still be required for aspects of communities. Since the mix has relatively easy to find constituent parts, local procurement is expected to be feasible.

New Story and ICON will be taking the printer to the field in 2019. Cost, quality, and efficiency once the printer is in country will determine the roll-out plans for additional communities in 2019 and beyond.

The printer is projected to be in the field in 2019 and families will begin to move-in after printing, seismic, and safety tests are completed,

These printers are designed to work under the constraints common places like Haiti and rural El Salvador where power can be unpredictable, potable water is not a guarantee, and technical assistance is sparse. Building the printer to not rely on these items was crucial to bet on the reliability of the printer in the field.

• Safety & durability: The printer currently operates in Austin, TX, a city with some of the world’s toughest building codes. Safety, durability, and specifications have been focus of New Story & ICON since day one.

• Underserved population focused: These printers are designed to work under the constraints common places like Haiti and rural El Salvador where power can be unpredictable, potable water is not a guarantee, and technical assistance is sparse. Simply put, it’s designed for the developing world and to tackle housing shortages instead of building with profit motivation.

• Flexibility: The printer is the largest in the world. With an axis set upon a track, the printer has a theoretically unlimited print area.