Construction has commenced on the largest community of 3D printed residences in the United States. The hundred-home 'Wolf Ranch' development was designed by Bjarke Ingels Group and 3D printing technology group ICON and is being constructed in the city of Georgetown, Texas, just north of Austin.

The scheme is comprised of eight floorplans ranging from 1,574 to 2,112 square feet, split between three and four-bedroom units. The interior material palette includes printed wall textures and polished concrete floors, while the homes' exteriors will be chosen from 24 elevation styles. The roof of each home will also include solar panels.  

The interior and exterior walls will be delivered using a fleet of 3D printing robots, which the team believes will yield less waste and more design freedom. The development partners also see the accelerated construction process behind the community as a precedent for addressing the U.S. housing crisis.

“For the first time in the history of the world, what we’re witnessing here is a fleet of robots building an entire community of homes,” said ICON co-founder and CEO Jason Ballard. “And not just any homes, homes that are better in every way: better design, higher strength, higher energy performance and comfort, and increased resiliency.”

“In the future, I believe robots and drones will build entire neighborhoods, towns, and cities, and we’ll look back at Lennar’s Wolf Ranch community as the place where robotic construction at scale began,” Ballard continued. “We still have a long way to go, but I believe this marks a very exciting and hopeful turn in the way we address housing issues in the world.”

Reservations are set to open in 2023, with prices anticipated to start from the mid $400,000s.

The scheme is one of several ICON projects to recently feature in our editorial. In April, we reported on the 3D printing company’s collaboration with the Department of Defense to deliver three residential structures on a military base in El Paso, while in March, the group worked with Lake|Flato to deliver a curving 3D printed home in Austin.

You can learn more about the process behind 3D printed architectural design and construction by reading our feature article on the subject, which tracked the delivery of a 3D printed home in Arizona.