ICON has announced a new suite of products and technologies designed to automate construction, including a new robotic printer that enables multi-story construction, a new 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.
“This is the moment we’ve really been working for these past six years,” said Jason Ballard, ICON co-founder and CEO. “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. We didn’t want to just be the best at 3D printing, we wanted to be the best at building, period. Now, I believe we can say that is a reality. I am so proud of the work ICON has done to get to where we are today– not only the promise, but the reality of technology, architecture and materials that will allow us to build better than anyone in the world.”
ICON
Phoenix
ICON’s new multi-story robotic construction system introduces the capability of printing an entire building enclosure including foundations and roof structures. ICON is now taking orders for projects using Phoenix starting at $25 per sq.-ft. for wall systems or $80 per sq.-ft. including foundation and roof. The first engineering prototype of Phoenix has completed a 27-ft. tall architectural demonstration structure.
CODEX
ICON’s digital catalog of ready-to-print home architecture features more than 60 designs across five collections: Texas modern, fire resilient, storm resilient, affordable and avant garde. CODEX allows builders, developers and home buyers to build with ICON. ICON’s aim is for CODEX to serve as a digital catalog of buildable home designs in the world. It enables ICON customers to select preferred designs as a starting point for their master planned communities and developments. ICON will continue to introduce new collections and will also partner with and compensate architects all over the world to feature their designs. Three of the CODEX collections were designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.
ICON
CarbonX
ICON’s CarbonX is a new low-carbon extrudable, printable concrete formula. When paired with ICON’s wall system and robotic construction methods, ICON’s CarbonX formula is a low carbon residential building system ready to be used at scale. ICON has also announced that it will make its material available to other projects and customers, not only its own 3D-printed projects. Future formulations of CarbonX are in development to reduce carbon footprint.
Vitruvius
Vitruvius is an AI system for designing and building homes. The goal of Vitruvius is to take human and project inputs and produce architecture, plans, permit-ready designs, budgets and schedules. Launched with an open beta, Vitruvius will help individuals design homes and generate floor plans, interior renders and exterior renders based on their own desires, budgets and feedback.
In the future, Vitruvius will progress all the way through schematic designs. Eventually, ICON believes its AI architect will be able to produce full construction documents as well as permit-ready designs, budgets and schedules. Vitruvius feature a combination of design and construction know-how. That knowledge is what allows Vitruvius to produce designs that can be built.
“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. 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. Going forward, ICON is an AI and robotics company focused on transforming the way we build and accelerating what we believe is a very exciting future. Vitruvius will become the default method for ICON in designing custom homes. We intend to be selling and building Vitruvius-designed homes beginning this year," said Ballard.
