3D printed construction has been around for several years and, with large concrete 3D printers gaining more ground in the industry, it is competing with traditional construction as a cost-effective alternative.
There are many reasons for the improving price points, including a variety of new start-ups and legacy engineering groups competing to seize market share with their proprietary 3D printers. These companies are taking advantage of innovative concrete mixtures and other unique materials to build homes in an affordable and sustainable fashion.
With so many different 3D printed buildings being unveiled around the globe, it’s impossible to give an exact price for what a 3D printed house will cost you. This is especially true with the variety of materials, costs unique to each location, and property price.
The best way to determine the price of a 3D printed home is to compile a list of notable recent projects and examine their construction costs and purchase prices. As you’re about to see, the range between projects can be quite large but is generally competitive with conventionally constructed homes.
Project Virginia
Project Virginia aims to 3D print over 200 affordable homes in a 3-year period, starting in 2022. The project requires complete neighborhood construction including building roads and utilities for the 3D printed houses.
Alquist partnered with local organizations including Virginia Housing and Virginia Tech to build the homes and help Virginians with unstable housing access the 3D printed homes. The first family moved into one of the houses in July 2022, purchasing it for $235,000 with the assistance of several grants.
Homes constructed in the first phase of the project are single-story structures with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Up to 72 units will be 3D printed as part of this phase, each measuring 1,280 sq. ft. Four different house designs will be 3D printed in the later phases of Project Virginia.
As part of the partnership with Virginia Tech, a 3D Printed Construction curriculum is being developed to teach students. It’s the first of its kind in North America and will help develop a workforce prepared to utilize 3D printing.
- Creator: Alquist
- Price: $235,000
- Location: Richmond, Virginia
- Finished: First unit completed in June 2022 with additional construction ongoing
Project Milestone
Project Milestone is, according to those behind it, the world’s first commercial housing project based on 3D concrete printing. It’s planned to consist of five 3D printed houses located in the Meerhoven district of Eindhoven, Netherlands. The exact location is called Bosrijk, which is an area with a high focus on sustainable living – so much so that it’s not even connected to the natural gas grid.
Each of the five houses will be different, with the first being the simplest and the fifth being both the largest and most complex to build. The first house has already been built, with all the requirements from the government being met in order to be a habitable space.
The house was initially available for rent at around €800 (~$946) per month through Vesteda, a Dutch online real estate platform, although it’s now listed at €1,375 (~$1,415). The first tenants, Elize Lutz and Harrie Dekkers, received the keys in April of 2021 and moved in shortly after.
The walls were entirely 3D printed using recycled concrete and later put together on-site. The interior space of the house in question measures 93 square meters. Exact information around its construction cost hasn’t yet been made available.
- Creators: Eindhoven University of Technology, Vesteda (among others)
- Price: €1,375 (~$1,415) per month to rent
- Location: Meerhoven district of Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Finished: Early 2021 (first house)
Austin & Tabasco Houses
Icon is renowned in the industry for many projects, and while we’ll get to another one later, their earlier ones deserve a mention of their own. In short, the Texas-based company specializes in developing low-cost construction solutions with their Vulcan printer. The printer is used in most of their projects, including the Chicon House, pictured above and built in Austin in 2018. Construction supposedly cost $4,000 and took 24 hours.
In collaboration with the non-profit organization New Story, Icon started building a whole neighborhood of these low-cost 3D printed houses in Tabasco, Mexico. The goal of the project, now called “A Place to Call Home” on the company’s website, was to provide homes for people in need. Work began in December 2019, and a few homes were reportedly completed, but little else about the project has been reported.
A similar series of houses, part of the “Community First! Village“, was constructed last year back in Austin. In line with their predecessors, they’re being offered to those in extreme poverty.
- Creator: Icon
- Construction cost: ~$4,000 and up
- Location: Austin, Texas; Tabasco, Mexico
- Finished: 2018-2020
Azure Printed Homes
Azure Printed Homes is a Culver City, California start-up that’s 3D printing prefab homes to tackle the affordability crisis in major, densely populated cities. Their homes are meant to serve as second or third units on residential properties with an existing home, offering affordable housing to renters and giving homeowners a new revenue stream in place of a backyard or driveway.
The backyard homes range from studios (180 sq. ft.) to 2-bedroom units (900 sq. ft.) with a few options in between. The studios are the most affordable at $43,900 with larger homes costing between $85,900 and $204,900.
Each unit has different floorplans available to view on Azure’s website. In addition to the standard bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen, many of these homes include laundry rooms, making them more appealing than most apartments that are far more expensive in major cities.
They’ve already received over $4 million in preorders, proving the demand exists for these 3D printed units. The company expects the waitlist for units of 180 sq. ft. to take three months to fulfill, at which point they’ll begin production on the larger units.
- Creator: Azure Printed Homes
- Price: $43,900 to $204,900
- Location: Anywhere with a permit
- Finished: Currently shipping pre-orders
Mighty Buildings
Mighty Buildings focuses on sustainable housing by utilizing modern technologies, such as 3D printing, robotics, and automation. Housing is a substantial problem around the world, especially in the Bay Area of California, where prices are going through the roof.
Mighty Buildings wants to help solve the housing crisis by introducing pre-fabricated homes at reasonable prices. They’ve developed their own large 3D printing systems as well as special reinforced materials that harden quickly during extrusion. Because the homes are pre-fabricated, all printed components go through a robotic exterior finishing process, which can also implement insulation into the structures.
Currently, the firm offers a few different pre-fabricated units that can act as accessory dwelling units or fully-fledged family homes ranging from 864 to 1,440 square feet.
Apart from those pre-fabricated homes on offer, Mighty Buildings has also presented their project in Rancho Mirage that involves 15 sustainable, pre-fabricated 3D printed homes with an affordable price tag.
Whereas this approach to housing isn’t quite ready to replace conventional homes, it’s a massive step towards solving the housing crisis and a great look into what the future of construction might be like.
- Creator: Mighty Buildings
- Price: ~$190,000 and up for variations (according to industry sources)
- Location: Anywhere with a permit
- Finished: N/A
Gaia
WASP (World’s Advanced Saving Project) is an Italian company that’s been developing low-cost sustainable housing solutions for years. The company has developed 3D printers for construction, and as an example of what their machines can achieve, they 3D printed a house called Gaia. Over the course of 10 days, the house was printed on WASP’s 12-meter high delta construction 3D printer.
What separates Gaia from other similar projects is its walls’ complex geometry and materials. The idea behind the non-uniform wall geometry is to provide natural ventilation through channels located within the layers. Then, to provide additional insulation, rice husks were poured into gaps, allowing for a mild interior temperature in both summer and winter.
While the house was produced with WASP’s 3D construction technology, the materials were locally sourced and natural rather than the classic concrete mix. As you might expect, the unique locally-sourced mix helped bring down the material cost, resulting in the main structure costing approximately $900 to build.
- Creator: WASP
- Construction cost: ~$900 for the main structure
- Location: Northern Italy
- Finished: October 2018
SQ4D's 3D Printed House
SQ4D is an American company that develops construction 3D printing systems. With the help of their Autonomous Robotic Construction System (ARCS), they’ve been able to lower construction costs and therefore provide more affordable housing.
Not long ago, they listed the first ever 3D printed home for sale in the United States. The entire wall structure of the house was 3D printed in concrete, creating 1,500 sq. ft. of living space, plus a 2 ½ car garage that was 750 sq. ft.
With the price of this property set at $299,999, it sits at half the cost of comparable newly constructed homes in the same area. This is clearly an important step forward for the entire 3D printing construction sector and a truly interesting project overall.
- Creator: SQ4D
- Price: ~$300,000
- Location: Riverhead, New York
- Finished: Early 2021
East 17th Street Residences
East 17th Street Residences is a new project from 3 Strands, who have teamed up with Icon. The latter company, well known in the 3D printed house scene, makes the parts using their latest concrete 3D printing system. The Residences are one of their latest endeavors, consisting of four relatively large houses that will be located in Austin, Texas.
The ground floor walls of the four houses are to be entirely 3D printed, while the upper parts are being built using traditional methods like wood. Combining concrete with wood achieves a modern look and provides a firm structure. It takes between five and seven days to complete the printing of the concrete parts.
The four houses are different, ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 sq. ft. The pricing is around $450,000 and up, depending on the house. And while that may seem steep, it’s actually comparable to similar houses in the area, only these four are being built with phenomenally modern technology.
Final Thoughts
As we mentioned above, it’s hard to give an exact cost or price of a 3D printed building in 2022, as it depends on the structure’s size and complexity. The simple answer would be that, in this day and age, it’s possible to 3D print a house for as low as $4,000. And that covers the structure of the house (i.e. base, walls, and roof) and in some cases, wiring. Pricing then depends on the construction costs, the area the house is built in, and its purpose.
Looking at the different values, you’ll have noticed that the price for the East 17th Street Residences is quite high in comparison to cheaper and smaller 3D printed houses. For high-end projects with 3D printing concrete and additional construction components, you can expect the costs and prices to be higher, but from what we’ve seen, they’re never more than those of comparable, conventionally built houses.
As time goes on, we predict more and more companies will move towards the construction of 3D printed buildings. This, combined with ever-advancing technologies, should bring prices down and quality and quantity up. And that’s great! After all, who doesn’t want to see a world with greater access to safe, affordable homes?
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