ICON’s 3D-printed homes, hotel to Marfa

UPDATED: 10:35 a.m., May 2: ICON is bringing a 3D-printed luxury home community to the Trans-Pecos, boasting a design that matches its West Texas landscape. 

Sales began last week for Sunday Homes, a 30- to 40-home complex in Marfa, with prices starting at $900,000, ranging from 1,200 to 2,400 square feet, the Houston Chronicle reported. With construction set to begin next year, Douglas Elliman has begun marketing the homes, and buyers can reserve one for $5,000.

Austin-based ICON, led by CEO and co-founder Jason Ballard, has been at the forefront of the 3D-printed homes movement, turning heads at Austin’s SXSW festival back in 2018 when it built a 350-square-foot house over a 48-hour stretch. 

The company is now partnering with famous hotelier Liz Lambert as part of the Sunday Homes development. Lambert is moving El Cosmico hotel from its 21-acre site along U.S. Route 67 to the new community, and the hotel will be expanded to feature large-scale 3D-printed domes, arches, vaults and parabolic forms, the outlet said. Residents of Sunday Homes will have access to amenities at El Cosmico, which will include a swimming pool. 

Collaborators for the project include interior design by Lambert McGuire Design, and Copenhagen-based firm Bjarke Ingels Group as the architect of the hotel. The energy-efficient community’s futuristic design is meant to serve as an extension of the desert it’s built on.

“Organic shapes, Euclidian circular geometries and a color palette born from the local terroir makes El Cosmico feel as if literally erected from the site it stands on,” Bjarke Ingels said in a statement.

ICON’s in-house made printer, the Vulcan, uses a proprietary cement-based material called Lavacrete to create the homes. Ballard and his counterparts believe 3D homes have the potential to curb issues related to housing affordability, sustainability and supply shortages.

—Quinn Donoghue

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the materials used to print the homes and the cost of a house built at SXSW.