People have been talking about the advent of 3D-printed homes for quite some time now, but now a listing for a home in upstate New York has popped up on Zillow boasting to be the “world’s first 3D-printed home for sale.”
The listing’s claim is somewhat spurious due to the fact that companies like Mighty Building began selling 3D-printed dwellings last year and this 3D-printed home received a certificate of occupancy back in 2018. But the new listing for the 3D-printed single-family home located in Riverhead, N.Y., is still somewhat notable for a couple of reasons.
Unlike many smaller 3D-printed abodes, the Riverhead home was built on-site rather than constructed in a warehouse and then later transported to the plot. Designed by H2M and built by SQ4D Inc., the Riverhead home was also constructed using autonomous robotic construction systems (ARCS), which is a type of 3D printing tech created to help decrease build times while also increasing safety due to need for less human workers.
The relatively large (for a 3D-printed house) 130 square metre abode features three bedrooms and two bathrooms, a detached two-car garage and quarter acre lot, with a listed price of $US300,000 ($390,990), which is actually reasonably affordable and well priced compared to similar homes in the area. SQ4D claims the concrete produced by its ARCS tech (which is used in the home’s foundation, footings and walls) is twice as strong as standard industry requirements, which means the home should be quite durable too.
On the outside, while the top half of the house appears quite normal due to its traditional siding and shingle roof, it also has some of the telltale signs that it was made using 3D-printers — most notably the horizontal layers that form on its exterior walls as concrete dries during construction.
In a series of videos from YouTuber Jarret Gross, you can get a better idea of how the home was constructed over the course of about a year — 3D printers were used to form most of the home’s foundation and supports, while other sections like the roof were constructed using more traditional methods.
The Riverhead home may not be the first 3D-printed home to hit the marker or even the largest, it’s kind of nice to see the idea of 3D-printed homes go from being concepts and demos to something that could pop up in your neighbourhood.