At this year's SXSW, Austin's construction tech startup ICON is stepping up the homebuilding game with a suite of new features aimed at making buying a house not only more customizable but also more affordable. In a city where innovation is as hot as the Texas sun, ICON's latest offerings are set to seriously stir the real estate pot.
ICON co-founder and CEO, Jason Ballard, is ready to solidly shake the foundation of conventional construction. "When we launched the company and the first permitted 3D-printed house in 2018 during SXSW, we set out to both decrease the cost and increase the quality of building instead of choosing one or the other," Ballard said in a statement to KVUE. "Now, I believe we can say that is a reality."
The latest robotic system from ICON dubbed Phoenix, is poised to significantly bring down printing costs. It's expected to save around $25,000 for the average home in the states, with prices beginning at a ground-breaking $25 per square foot for wall systems. There's currently a 27-foot-tall demo building standing in Austin to showcase what Phoenix can do.
ICON's new digital catalog, CODEX, offers over 60 printable home designs, including Texas modern and fire or storm-resilient options. Ballard spoke to the American-Statesman about their vision of building a "more beautiful world that accords with the things people want and value, in a way that they can afford," as per Austin American Statesman. Meanwhile, their AI home design system called Vitruvius is designed to perfectly allow potential buyers to trot out their dream home's floor plans without breaking a sweat.
In the spirit of stepping lightly on Earth, ICON is also introducing a low-carbon building system named CarbonX, with 3D-printed homes on the horizon. This initiative, along with their AI tool, looks set to redefine how dream homes are translated from imagination to reality. It appears that the future of the American residence could just lie in the capable robotic 'arms' of Phoenix, which can churn out not just walls, but foundations and roofs as well—regardless of weather conditions or design complexities, according to Austin American Statesman.
