An SF-based design firm has partnered with a nonprofit that develops housing in the developing world to build a 50-unit housing village using 3-D printing construction technology in 50 days time.
Designer Yves Béhar of San Francisco-based Fuseproject tells the New York Times that he's been using 3-D printing in his work since the 1990s. And now he's working with 3-D printing construction firm ICON and nonprofit developer New Story to create 50 free-standing dwelling units later this year in an undisclosed location in Latin America — Béhar says more details are to come, after construction begins.
ICON's Vulcan II concrete printer was featured in multiple news stories last year, which touted that it could build an entire small house in less than 24 hours, all for about $4,000.
Now, Béhar and his firm are working to design two- and three-bedroom house plans for a community of farmworkers and weavers, and the units will be differentiated using tinted concrete, in order to keep them from looking too much alike.
As he tells the Times, "You can shape the walls to have different functionality [with this technology]; you can create a shower stall that doesn’t have sharp corners."
Below, Béhar talks to Curbed in 2016 about his love of design, and how he envisions the future of residential architecture.