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Three-dimensional printing can create almost any object. A partnership in Mexico is testing this theory by building a village for residents living in poverty.

Pedro García Hernández, 48, is a carpenter in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, a rainforest-covered region of the country where about half of its residents live below the poverty line.

He earns a living of about 2,500 pesos ($125.17) per month from a small workspace in the house he shares with his wife Patrona and their daughter Yareli. The floor of the house is soil and is prone to flooding during Tabasco’s long rainy season. Dust from construction projects covers almost everything in the home, clinging to bedroom walls, the pump toilet, and the countertops of the makeshift kitchen.

But that will soon change. Within a few months, Mr. Hernández and his family are moving into a new home on the outskirts of Nacajuca, Mexico: a stylish 500-square-foot building with two bedrooms, a finished kitchen and bathroom, and indoor plumbing. The most unusual thing about the house is that it was made with an 11-metre 3D printer.

3D printing, a manufacturing process that builds objects layer by layer from a digital file, is set for explosive growth. later pandemic related explosion The market for 3D printing, from printing objects such as test swabs, protective clothing and breathing apparatus parts, is estimated to be worth $55.8 billion by 2027. blacksmiths, a technology consulting firm.

Almost any object can be 3D printed; In construction, it uses concrete, foam and polymers to produce full-scale buildings. The real estate sector is warming up on the trend: Construction firm SQ4D This year, Riverhead listed a 3D-printed home for $299,000 in NY. It was billed as the first 3D-printed home for sale in the United States, but has been reinstated by similar projects in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

And now, the 3D printed community era has arrived. Mr. Hernández’s house is one of 500 houses built by Mr. Hernández. new storya San Francisco nonprofit focused on providing housing solutions to communities in extreme poverty echale, a social housing manufacturing company in Mexico and Symbol, a construction technology company in Austin, Texas.

When New Story broke ground on the village in 2019, it was dubbed the world’s first community of 3D printed houses. Two years and a pandemic later, 200 homes are either under construction or completed, 10 of which were printed on-site by Icon’s Vulcan II printer. Road plans, football field, school, market and library works continue.

Henry D’Esposito, who leads construction research at JLL, a commercial real estate firm, said detached houses are a good testing ground for the durability of 3D-printed structures because they are small and offer an iterative design process without being too high. . They can also be built to withstand natural disasters: Nacajuca is located in a seismic zone and the houses there have already withstood a 7.4 magnitude earthquake.

The technology is promising, but some investors remain cautious and are watching closely the emergence of 3-D residential clusters.

in March, Machetes Houses and construction company Strong Buildings Rancho Mirage announces a $15 million planned community of more than a dozen 3D-printed homes in California The community has more than 1,000 waiting lists.

That same month, Icon announced that it was working with the developer. 3 strands and DEN Real Estate Group Four 3D-printed homes in Austin costing between $450,000 and $795,000. Icon also printed houses Community First Village In Austin, a project by the nonprofit Mobile Loaves & Fishes that provides permanent housing to homeless men and women.

The 3D printing market grew 21 percent last year, and Hubs, a manufacturing platform, predicts it will double over the next five years.

“It’s a really effective and efficient way to build a small segment of property, but not applicable to the broader commercial real estate ecosystem,” said Mr. D’Esposito. “We don’t know exactly how these buildings will perform over the decades or what maintaining long-term value will be for them. So if you’re talking to an investor or lender, that’s a big yellow flag.”

Building a house in Nacajuca with Icon’s Vulcan II printer looks a lot like a large soft serve ice cream cone: Layers of lavacret, the company’s proprietary concrete mix, are poured one after another in long whirlpools. The printer is controlled by a tablet or smartphone, requires a minimum of three workers and can complete a house in less than 24 hours.

“We know that being able to build faster without sacrificing quality is something we need to make big leaps in if we’re going to take a step towards housing throughout our lifetimes,” Brett Hagler said. He is the CEO of Story and one of the four founders.

The organization was launched in 2015, shortly after Mr. Hagler took a trip to Haiti and found families still living in tents years after the 2010 earthquake. According to Habitat for Humanity, 1.6 billion people worldwide live in inadequate housing.

“We’re really looking at the biggest opportunities for both impact and productivity gains,” said Alexandria Lafci, co-founder of New Story. “There is a very important gain in the speed you get with 3D printing without sacrificing quality.”

Speed ​​is only one factor in completing a village – New Story teamed up with local officials in Tabasco to bring sewer services, electricity and water to the community.

Mr. Hernández, who plans to expand his construction business in his new home, said he is not focusing on a relocation date. She cares about the long-term impact of the home for her daughter, who is studying to become a nurse.

“When we buy the house, my daughter will be able to count on him,” she said. “He won’t have to worry anymore.”

Operating in Mexico for 24 years, Échale helped New Story select residents for new homes based on need. He decided to sign the deed of each house not to an entire family, but to the woman of the house.

“To protect the family,” said Francesco Piazzesi, CEO of Échale. “A man sells a house if necessary. A woman will do whatever it takes to save the home for her children and family.”

Échale hires local workers to build their own communities, so placing a 3D printer from an American tech company in the heart of a rural village was a change.

“If you came to Nacajuca when the 3D printer was there, you would see machines that looked like RoboCop film,” Mr. Piazzesi said. “It creates opportunities for people because something enters and drives society.”

Icon has delivered more than two dozen 3D-printed homes in the United States and Mexico. Future projects manage a spectrum ranging from social housing to disaster relief housing to market-rated real estate. There is also a project with NASA to develop space-based construction systems that it hopes will eventually serve as habitats for both the moon and Mars.

Jason Ballard, co-founder and CEO of Icon, said his biggest hurdle when Icon was founded was convincing the skeptics.

“The contractors and developers explained to me how it was not possible to make them concrete to do this, even when I walked them all the way to our 3D-printed home,” he said. “Our biggest challenge now is that we have to make more printers.”