Icon, an Austin-based provider of construction technologies and large-scale 3D printing, announced a new suite of products and technologies designed to further automate residential construction.
According to the company, the new product suite includes a robotic printer that enables multi-story construction, a low-carbon building material, a digital catalog for residential architecture with more than 60 ready-to-build home designs, and an “AI Architect” for home design and construction. The product suite, which was introduced during an event at SXSW, is designed to create a faster and more sustainable way to affordably build housing.
“In the future, I believe nearly all construction will be done by robots, and nearly all construction-related information will be processed and managed by AI systems,” said Jason Ballard, Icon’s co-founder and CEO. “It is clear to me that this is the way to cut the cost and time of construction in half while making homes that are twice as good and more faithfully express the values and hopes of the people who live in them. We are going to need the same velocity of ambitious technological breakthroughs that we’ve experienced in these past few years, but we know where we are headed.”
Ballard added, “If you are a person who wants to own an Icon home, we want to hear from you so that we know what to design, where to build and what your hopes are for your own future. If you are a developer who needs support to deliver your project ahead of schedule and under budget and feel good about what you’ve created in the world, we want to build with you. If you are a builder who wants to take the most advanced construction tools in the world with you into the field, we want to work with you. If you are an architect, who wants to help us develop entirely new design languages and architectural vernaculars that align with your culture, values and imagination, we want to work together. We want to bring the entire industry together and equip everyone with the tools to properly build our future.”
;
