THE WASHINGTON POST.
SATURDAy, MARCH 7, 2020eZ10
nity of 50 houses under construc-
tion in Ta basco, Mexico. New Sto-
ry a nd Icon partnered to create t he
first 3-D-printed structure in East
Austin that debuted in March
2018 at South by Southwest. That
building, now an office, s erved a s a
prototype for the 3-D-printed
homes at C ommunity First.
“With one type of technology,
you essentially get a lower-cost
home — the exact percent in price
is TBD. Two, it’s faster. Three, it’s
very exciting to us because you get
a much better custom design
based on a family’s need,” he said.
“What I do believe is that it has a
very real chance to usher in a
quantum leap in how we build
shelter.”
Hagler said he’s confident the
technology will be developed to
affect more than just the current
single-story detached house and
provide solutions to large-scale
projects.
“There’s an opportunity for a
two-story. T hat’s going to happen,”
he said. “Right now, if we can
figure out a two-story, we can fig-
ure out a 10-story. I t’s just a matter
of time.”
At Community First, residents
pay monthly rents ranging from
$220 to $430 and can earn wages
by working on-site. The six new
houses that will rent for $430 w ere
created by the second-generation
3-D printer called Vulcan II, which
last year printed the village’s wel-
come center.
Shea has come a long way from
Ohio, when he was married and
lived with his wife and two chil-
dren in a house he bought in 1971.
He was married 12 years, he said,
“u ntil I struck out on my o wn.”
“We were comfortable,” h e said,
explaining that he had attended
Ohio State University but didn’t
graduate and then worked at sev-
eral jobs in Ohio and in Austin
until poor health caught up with
him and forced him onto the
streets. He lives on a modest fixed
income of disability and Social
Security p ayments.
“I had never been homeless be-
fore I got in b ad shape physically. I
didn’t feel equipped for it and
didn’t handle i t very well,” h e said.
“Some people I’ve met here have
been in and out of homelessness
all their life. It’s a shock to your
system. All I could do was hide. I
was embarrassed.”
Now with his new 3-D-printed
home in sight, Shea is optimistic,
for himself and the prospect of
3-D-printed homes.
“I feel like it’s going to help
people in every situation in life,”
he said. “It’s one of the most inno-
vative steps — not just for the
homeless — but for affordable
housing. It’s p retty amazing.”
[email protected]sharon Jayson is a writer with Kaiser
Health news, a nonprofit news service
covering health issues. It is an
editorially independent program of
the Kaiser family foundation that is
not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.change t he way we design.”
Brett Hagler is co-founder of
New Story, a San Francisco-based
social housing nonprofit to end
global homelessness. His group
and Icon are working on the
world’s first 3-D-printed commu-customization,” he said. “More
and more construction sites will
become more and more like facto-
ry settings, and instead of labor-
ers, you’re looking at technicians.
I’m a very big proponent of think-
ing about how the 3 -D printer cansor at the University of Southern
California School of Architecture
in Los Angeles, said 3-D’s advan-
tages “are about precision and
customization.”
“Its actual benefit is in larger
projects that have a high deal ofDepartment of Housing and Ur-
ban Development Secretary Ben
Carson visited Austin twice last
year, checking out Icon headquar-
ters a nd t ouring the v illage.
“Innovation is key to solving
our affordable housing crisis,”
Carson s aid in an email. “The w ork
that c ompanies like Icon a re doing
could have a huge impact o n hous-
ing affordability in communities
across t he c ountry.”
Such a move i s overdue, a ccord-
ing to the H arvard Joint Center for
Housing Studies. The center in
October issued a study that illus-
trated a growing income disparity
among older Americans.
The federal government con-
siders housing affordable when a
resident can spend 30 percent or
less of income on it. Those who
spend more, according to the
study, are “cost burdened.”
“While many households now
of retirement age have the means
to age in place or move to other
suitable h ousing, a record n umber
are cost burdened and will have
few affordable housing options as
they age,” the analysis said. “In
addition, many older renters are
less well positioned than home-
owners because they have lower
cash s avings and wealth.”
Moreover, the study said that
homelessness among older adults
is increasing. The share of people
age 50 and older experiencing
homelessness rose to 33.8 percent
in 2017 from 22.9 percent in 2007.
Those statistics, according to the
study, suggest t he “ need f or afford-
able, accessible housing and in-
home s upportive services is there-
fore s et t o soar.”
Such housing insecurity can af-
fect a person’s health and well-be-
ing. “Financial pressures can also
lead t o depression and o ther phys-
ical p roblems,” t he study said.
Not everyone is convinced that
3-D is t he answer for t he masses.
“Basically, 3-D printing i s creat-
ing a wall system,” said Chris Her-
bert, the Harvard Center’s m anag-
ing director. “It still has to have a
foundation. Someone n eeds to put
on a roof. It’s a nother way to lower
the labor cost of producing com-
ponents of the house, but it’s not
printing every piece o f the house.”
“If you can show me how 3-D
printing can produce components
that can be stacked with multiple
rooms and dimensions, that
would h ave wider applicability f or
the overall h ousing stock,” h e add-
ed.
Architecture professor Ryan
Smith, director of the School of
Design and Construction a t Wash-
ington State University, said he
agrees the t echnology i s in its early
days. “It’s worth investment and
work on research in the industry,
but I don’t see how it’s going to
work in the current supply chain
and labor market,” he said. “I per-
sonally still feel it will be 30 to 40
years before it will be having an
impact.”
But architect and 3-D advocate
Alvin Huang, an associate profes-regAn morton/communIty fIrst VIllAgeTOP: Icon’s 3-D
printer on the s ite in
Austin.
ABOVE: An Icon team
prepares a site in
Tabasco, Mexico, to
fabricate a 3-D-
printed community.
The nonprofit New
Story is involved in
the project as well.
LEFT: The welcome
center in Austin.courtesy of IconlAuren lArsen