Plenty of homes are under construction in Fort Worth, but the one at 100 W. Bolt St., across from La Gran Plaza, is different.
The property is said to be the first International Code Council Evaluation Service-approved residence to use load-bearing 3D-printed walls.
“We are excited to be printing a home in a densely populated area that will provide more people with an opportunity to witness the future of construction,” said Mike Miceli, CEO of the Union, New Jersey-based builder Black Buffalo 3D, in a statement. “This home will showcase the benefits of structural 3D construction including efficiency, low cost of ownership, and the ability to withstand natural and manmade disasters.”
The International Code Council Evaluation Service is an engineering organization that performs technical assessments of building products, materials and systems for code compliance. In October 2022, it issued a report on Black Buffalo 3D for its NEXCON 3D printer and Planitop 3D ink, making it the first internationally coded solution for 3D printing in construction.
The three-bedroom home of about 1,500 square feet was designed in partnership with Houston-based Boxer Property to showcase the ease of the immediate construction process, as well as future maintenance and upkeep, said Peter Cooperman, chief marketing officer for Black Buffalo 3D.
“We’ve done a good amount of investment and work over the past four years to get this going,” he said.
A lot of work went into getting the 3D printer’s “ink,” or concrete mixture right, Cooperman said.
“We developed our own material, a cement-base material that was the first in the world to meet standards to be able to print load bearing walls,” he said.
When the company partnered with Boxer Property, they began looking for a site to demonstrate the technology. Boxer Property owned the location at 100 W. Bolt St.
“It’s a great location where a lot of people can see it, and we’ll have a home using traditional construction nearby so there can be a comparison,” Cooperman said.
The company’s giant NEXCON printer, a modular printing system, is set up on the site. It can print the walls of a 40-foot by 40-foot home in less than 30 hours.
While the Bolt Street home is designed much like a traditional home, Cooperman said, the technology allows for a variety of styles, including curves and waves.
“It offers a lot of options,” he said.
Black Buffalo calls the home design used for the Bolt Street house, “LoMa,” short for low maintenance. The homes have the plumbing, electrical and other utilities mounted on the walls’ interiors for easy access and maintenance.
The technology is not limited to homes either, Cooperman said. The NEXCON was designed to undertake a variety of construction types, from smaller format homes to customizable homes, industrial buildings and retail structures.
The system emphasizes construction efficiency, too, he said.
With the guided rail system, the printer’s range can be expanded over multiple lots.
“This location is just one lot, but if you needed to you could build several homes faster and achieve some economies of scale,” Cooperman said.
Once the printing process begins, the NEXCON requires three to four workers to monitor the mostly automated process.
“Compared to building a standard home, this method requires a lot fewer workers, which can be key in places where finding construction workers is difficult,” said Cooperman. “Right now, there’s simply more demand for construction workers than supply.”
The environmental impact is also lessened, he said.
“Because we know how much material we’ll need to construct the building, there is not much wasted,” Cooperman said.
Shadi Nazarian, an architecture professor at the University of Texas at Arlington, is part of an interdisciplinary team exploring the viability of 3D-printing homes for affordable, sustainable and resilient housing in rural Alaska .
This technology could eventually be used to address affordable housing issues in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where housing prices continue to rise, she said.
“Advancing construction technology and developing 3D printing is a necessity because it enables us to achieve the goals of providing housing much faster, safer and stronger,” she said.
Black Buffalo has made its NEXCON 3D printer and Planitop 3D material available for sale and lease.
Boxer Property will use the home as a rental and for educational purposes.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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