The incredible £3,000 houses that can be downloaded and printed in just 24 hours to provide safe shelter for billions of homeless people

  • Austin-based startup Icon unveiled the its single-story 650-square-foot (60 sq m) house at the SXSW festival
  • The firm plans to build around 100 new houses for homeless people in El Salvador within the next 18 months
  • The company's Vulcan printer is used to create the properties, which can be built as large as 800 sq ft
  • The houses currently cost £7,200 ($10,000) to construct but this cost should be reduced to around £2,900 ($4,000) in the future

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Incredible houses printed from cement could help to end the global housing crisis, according to the company behind their creation.

The properties, which are currently at the concept stage, will soon be used to provide safe shelter for people in El Salvador and could one day be expanded worldwide to house billions.

The homes currently cost £7,200 ($10,000) to construct and take up to 24 hours to build, but for the production version this cost should be reduced to around £2,900 ($4,000).

They could also offer a viable option for the construction of off-world colonies on planets like Mars in the near future, the firm says.

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Last month, Texas-based start-up Icon unveiled its single-story 650-square-foot (60 sq m) house (pictured) at the SXSW festival in Austin. The properties, which are currently at the concept stage, will soon be used to provide safe shelter for people in El Salvador and could one day be expanded worldwide to house billions 

Incredible houses printed from cement could help help to end the global housing crisis, according to the company behind their creation. The properties, which are currently at the concept stage, will soon be used to provide safe shelter for people in El Salvador, and could one day be expanded worldwide to house billions

Austin-based startup Icon unveiled its single-story 650-square-foot (60 sq m) house at the SXSW festival.

Around 1.2 billion people globally live without adequate housing, according to the World Resources Institute's Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. 

A spokesman for the firm said: 'History has been punctuated with advances in technology and materials that provide an order-of-magnitude decrease in cost and time required to build a new home.

'And while recent decades have brought major advances in personal technology, construction practices remain relatively unchanged since the 1950s. 

'Icon aims to change this, ushering in a new era in construction to meet the needs of the future.' 

Icon's homes currently cost £7,200 ($10,000) to construct and take up to 24 hours to build, but for the production version this cost should be reduced to around £2,900 ($4,000) 

Austin-based startup Icon unveiled the its single-story 650-square-foot (60 sq m) house, which can be printed out of cement in just 12 to 24 hours, at the SXSW festival. The model unveiled at SXSW has a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and a curved porch. The roof is the only part that is not 3D-printed

The houses currently cost £7,200 ($10,000) to construct and take up to 24 hours to build, but for the production version this cost should be reduced to around £2,900 ($4,000). The process could help to end the global housing crisis, as well as offering a viable option for building off-world colonies in the near future, the firm says

The houses currently cost £7,200 ($10,000) to construct and take up to 24 hours to build, but for the production version this cost should be reduced to around £2,900 ($4,000). The process could help to end the global housing crisis, as well as offering a viable option for building off-world colonies in the near future, the firm says

They could also offer a viable option for the construction of off-world colonies on planets like Mars in the near future, the firm said. The firm has teamed up with New Story, a nonprofit that invests in international housing, and plans to build around 100 new homes in El Salvador within the next 18 months

Around 1.2 billion people globally live without adequate housing, according to the World Resources Institute's Ross Center for Sustainable Cities. While the homes are just a concept for now, they could soon be available to house some of these people

The firm has teamed up with New Story, a nonprofit that invests in international housing, and plans to build around 100 new homes in El Salvador within the next 18 months.

New Story previously worked to build low-cost houses in Haiti, where other construction efforts failed after the 2010 earthquake. 

The company's Vulcan printer is used to create the properties, which can be built as large as 800 sq ft (75 sq ft) - around twice as large as the average 'tiny house' and comparable to one-bedroom apartment sizes in cities like New York and London. 

In a written statement, a spokesman for the firm said: 'While recent decades have brought major advances in personal technology, construction practices remain relatively unchanged since the 1950s. Icon aims to change this, ushering in a new era in construction to meet the needs of the future'

In a written statement, a spokesman for the firm said: 'While recent decades have brought major advances in personal technology, construction practices remain relatively unchanged since the 1950s. Icon aims to change this, ushering in a new era in construction to meet the needs of the future'

The firm has teamed up with New Story, a nonprofit that invests in international housing, and plans to build around 100 new homes in El Salvador within the next 18 months. New Story previously worked to build low-cost houses in Haiti, where other construction efforts failed after the 2010 earthquake

The firm has teamed up with New Story, a nonprofit that invests in international housing, and plans to build around 100 new homes in El Salvador within the next 18 months. New Story previously worked to build low-cost houses in Haiti, where other construction efforts failed after the 2010 earthquake

The company's Vulcan printer is used to create the properties, which can be built as large as 800 sq ft (75 sq ft) - around twice as large as the average 'tiny house' and comparable to one-bedroom apartment sizes in cities like New York and London

The company's Vulcan printer is used to create the properties, which can be built as large as 800 sq ft (75 sq ft) - around twice as large as the average 'tiny house' and comparable to one-bedroom apartment sizes in cities like New York and London

 Icon first creates a schematic, which is then fed into a computer that instructs the printer how and where to place the cement. The test home was built in the backyard of a converted house used as office space by Icon

 Icon first creates a schematic, which is then fed into a computer that instructs the printer how and where to place the cement. The test home was built in the backyard of a converted house used as office space by Icon

Icon first creates a schematic, which is then fed into a computer that instructs the printer how and where to place the cement. 

The model unveiled at SXSW has a living room, bathroom, bedroom, and a curved porch. The roof is the only part that is not 3D-printed.

It was built in the backyard of a converted house used as office space by Icon. Staff plan to use it as an office, where they will tweak the design based on their experience of spending long periods of time in the space.  

Staff plan to use it as an office, where they will tweak the design based on their experience of spending long periods of time in the space

Staff plan to use it as an office, where they will tweak the design based on their experience of spending long periods of time in the space

Once testing of the design has been completed, Icon will move the Vulcan printer to El Salvador to start building work on its new planned community. The process is designed to minimise labour costs and waste materials.

Once testing of the design has been completed, Icon will move the Vulcan printer to El Salvador to start building work on its new planned community. The process is designed to minimise labour costs and waste materials.

Icon aims to provide the printer, which they believe will be able to produce at least 1,000 homes, for less than £72,000 ($100,000). New Story says Vulcan cost just under £180,000 ($250,000) to research and develop

Icon aims to provide the printer, which they believe will be able to produce at least 1,000 homes, for less than £72,000 ($100,000). New Story says Vulcan cost just under £180,000 ($250,000) to research and develop

Once testing of the design has been completed, Icon will move the Vulcan printer to El Salvador to start building work on its new planned community. 

The process is designed to minimise labour costs and waste materials. 

Icon aims to provide the printer, which they believe will be able to produce at least 1,000 homes, for less than £72,000 ($100,000). 

New Story says Vulcan cost just under £180,000 ($250,000) to research and develop.  

'There are a few other companies that have printed homes and structures,' Jason Ballard, one of Icon's three founders, told The Verge , 'but they are printed in a warehouse, or they look like Yoda huts. For this venture to succeed, they have to be the best houses.'

'There are a few other companies that have printed homes and structures,' Jason Ballard, one of Icon's three founders, told The Verge , 'but they are printed in a warehouse, or they look like Yoda huts. For this venture to succeed, they have to be the best houses.'

First invented in the 1980s by Chuck Hull, an engineer and physicist, 3D printing technology ¿ also called additive manufacturing ¿ is the process of making an object by depositing material, one layer at a time

First invented in the 1980s by Chuck Hull, an engineer and physicist, 3D printing technology – also called additive manufacturing – is the process of making an object by depositing material, one layer at a time

Similarly to how an inkjet printer adds individual dots of ink to form an image, a 3D printer adds material where it is needed, based on a digital file

Similarly to how an inkjet printer adds individual dots of ink to form an image, a 3D printer adds material where it is needed, based on a digital file

'There are a few other companies that have printed homes and structures,' Jason Ballard, one of Icon's  three founders, told The Verge, 'but they are printed in a warehouse, or they look like Yoda huts. 

'For this venture to succeed, they have to be the best houses. The use of cement as a common material will help normalize the process for potential tenants that question the sturdiness of the structure. 

'I think if we were printing in plastic we would encounter some issues.'

3D PRINTING TECHNOLOGY MAKES OBJECTS BY DEPOSITING MATERIALS ONE LAYER AT A TIME

First invented in the 1980s by Chuck Hull, an engineer and physicist, 3D printing technology – also called additive manufacturing – is the process of making an object by depositing material, one layer at a time.

Similarly to how an inkjet printer adds individual dots of ink to form an image, a 3D printer adds material where it is needed, based on a digital file.

Many conventional manufacturing processes involved cutting away excess materials to make a part, and this can lead to wastage of up to 30 pounds (13.6 kilograms) for every one pound of useful material, according to the Energy Department’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

By contrast, with some 3D printing processes about 98 per cent of the raw material is used in the finished part, and the method can be used to make small components using plastics and metal powders, with some experimenting with chocolate and other food, as well as biomaterials similar to human cells.

3D printers have been used to manufacture everything from prosthetic limbs to robots, and the process follows these basic steps:

· Creating a 3D blueprint using computer-aided design (CAD) software

· Preparing the printer, including refilling the raw materials such as plastics, metal powders and binding solutions.

· Initiating the printing process via the machine, which builds the object.

· 3D printing processes can vary, but material extrusion is the most common, and it works like a glue gun: the printing material is heated until it liquefies and is extruded through the print nozzle

· Using information from the digital file, the design is split into two-dimensional cross-sections so the printers knows where to put the material

· The nozzle deposits the polymer in thin layers, often 0.1 millimetre (0.004 inches) thick.

· The polymer rapidly solidifies, bonding to the layer below before the build platform lowers and the print head adds another layer (depending on the object, the entire process can take anywhere from minutes to days.)

· After the printing is finished, every object requires some post-processing, ranging from unsticking the object from the build platform to removing support, to removing excess powders. 

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