Icon Homes prepping smaller home printing tech to meet Austin’s infill push

Austin-based 3D-printed home manufacturer Icon Homes has plans to use new building technology created specifically to take advantage of the city’s push for smaller infill homes.

After speaking at a South by Southwest panel last week focused on the push to “future-proof” sustainably built new homes against severe weather and changing needs, Jared Kuhn, Icon’s vice president of real estate and land development sales, told the Austin Monitor the company is excited about the effects of the two HOME initiatives intended to add housing density throughout the city.

Kuhn said Icon’s forthcoming Phoenix home printer will take up a smaller footprint and help builders in the Austin area complete homes on smaller lots.

“It’s more geared to do infill lots and so it’s a much smaller-footprint robot and we can get into tighter spaces, so we talk about the HOME initiative all the time,” he said of the technology that is slated to hit the market in early 2026. “Now that you’re going to be able to do multiple dwelling units and ADUs, this robot’s going to be able to handle those kinds of sites.”

With multiple Icon homes already permitted for construction within the city, Kuhn said local planning and permitting staff have been supportive of the new way of adding housing stock quickly and at a lower cost than traditional building.

“We fall within the requirements of the International Building Code’s alternative means and methods, so we check all those boxes – and really, Austin’s been amazing. They’ve been so helpful. The most helpful of anywhere we’ve been,” he said. “Now we’re gearing up to figure out how we get our robots in the builders’ hands that are going to attack that (infill) part of the market.”

During the panel discussion, Kuhn said 3D printing using concrete offers the ability to create homes that can withstand fire and hurricane-force winds while also reducing builders’ reliance on costly labor and building materials.

“Labor just continues to go down … so we have to find automated ways,” he said. “We’re trying really hard prefab and other things that aren’t printed and having adjusted time delivery systems so that as soon as the walls are printed, we can get the rest of the house built in a really timely manner. And homebuilders all have to be doing that right now, no matter how they build.”

Panelist John Ho, CEO of California-based Landsea Homes, said sustainable building practices that address energy efficiency and low water usage can be included in new homes much more easily and inexpensively compared to being add-ons after construction is complete. He said those considerations are becoming more prominent following climate emergencies such as the recent fires in Los Angeles or hurricane damage throughout North Carolina.

“As we think about how we’re designing the homes that we’re building today, it really starts with when we buy that piece of land. That thinking has to be in the underwriting because if I underwrite that house to be a house that has sustainability, energy efficiency, is durable, can sustain these kind of 200-mile winds … that’s really important because that helps us,” he said. “We have to be profitable certainly as a public company, so if we can plan on building that in the design phase, we can build it into our purchasing costs as well too, and we’re going to be able to continue doing that on a sustainable basis.”

The Austin Monitor’s work is made possible by donations from the community. Though our reporting covers donors from time to time, we are careful to keep business and editorial efforts separate while maintaining transparency. A complete list of donors is available here, and our code of ethics is explained here.