Texas:
It looks like any other 3D printer, but it’s the size of a crane and is building a hotel layer by layer in the Texas desert. El Cosmico, an existing hotel and campground outside the city of Marfa, is expanding to include 43 new hotel units and 18 residential buildings on 40 acres (16 hectares), all built with 3D printers.
According to El Cosmico owner Liz Lambert and her partners on the project, Austin, Texas-based 3D printing company ICON and architects Bjarke Ingels Group, this is the world’s first 3D printed hotel.
Photo credit: Reuters
Lambert said the technology allows for unprecedented creativity.
“Most hotels are enclosed within four walls, and they often build the same building over and over again,” Lambert said. “This is the first time we’ve been able to build with so few constraints and so much fluidity. Just curves and domes and parabolas. It’s a crazy way to build.”
Lambert said the units can incorporate architectural features that would typically be too expensive to replicate on a large scale in traditional construction.
Photo credit: Reuters
The first two units under construction will have one story and 12-foot-high (3.7-meter) walls, and will be a three-bedroom living space and a one-room hotel unit.
The curved, beige walls were built by ICON’s Vulcan, a 3D printer that is 46.5 feet (14.2 meters) wide, 15.5 feet (4.7 meters) tall, and weighs 4.75 tons.
Photo credit: Reuters
The print technician monitors Vulcan as its robotic arm and nozzle glide around the work site on a gantry.
The 3D printer’s “ink” is a specialized cement-based material called Lavacrete, a proprietary mixture designed for strength, affordability and printability. Jason Ballard, CEO and founder of ICON, said workers adjust and mix the material based on weather conditions.
“The magic happens in the mixture that allows the print to continue,” Ballard said, adding that humidity, temperature and irradiance affect the behavior of the material and ultimately the final color.
ICON is also working on building a 3D printed housing community near Austin.
Milad Bazli, a science and technology lecturer at Australia’s Charles Darwin University, said that in the long term, 3D printing of buildings could lead to some skilled job losses.
“I think the impact on the economy, both from a social perspective and in terms of local employment, especially in remote areas, will be one of the challenges that needs to be taken into account when adopting 3D printing methods,” Bazli said.
The El Cosmico expansion is expected to be completed by 2026. Hotel rates will range from $200 to $450 a night.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
