Housing

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‘Can You Print a House?’: God, Robots and the U.S. Housing Crisis

Jason Ballard, an entrepreneur who once thought he would be a preacher, believes 3-D printing is the solution to fill the affordable housing gap in the United States.

Video: https://vp.nyt.com/video/2025/08/28/147 ... g_720p.mp4
Wolf Ranch, a collection of 100 3-D printed homes just outside of Austin, Texas, is the only 3-D printed housing community in the U.S.

By Debra KaminVisuals by Jordan Vonderhaar
Debra Kamin reported from Austin, Texas, where she visited 3-D printed communities and spent the night in a 3-D printed house.

Sept. 5, 2025

Growing up in a small town in East Texas, Jason Ballard didn’t imagine he would one day use robots to print houses. He was busy chasing flying squirrels and swimming with alligators in the dense conifer woods behind Texas’s pine curtain.

He felt called to God in those woods, which always smelled like Christmas. He thought he would be a preacher, and after high school, he entered the formal discernment process, a testing-of-the-waters of priesthood.

In addition to the heavens, he was drawn to big, romantic ideas about space above and the earth below. So he reached for both. First, he earned a bachelor’s degree in conservation biology, and fascinated with sustainable building, he took on an apprenticeship in carpentry (the biblical parallels were not lost on him). He also earned a master’s degree in space resources to perhaps pursue becoming an astronaut.

But what Mr. Ballard carried with him from his childhood, between happy recollections of horseback rides and airborne rodents, was the memory of spending a Christmas in a Federal Emergency Management Agency trailer. Hurricane Andrew, which killed 65 people, had forced his family to evacuate from Orange, Texas. He would later evacuate from Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike, as well.

ImageJason Ballard, in a cowboy hat and blue collard shirt, stands surrounded by sloping 3-D printed walls.

Jason Ballard once dreamed of being both a priest and an astronaut. Now he’s trying to change the way the world builds houses, one 3-D printed structure at a time.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

His mission, he decided, would be to stay exactly where he had started, in Texas, and develop housing. The homes would be sturdy, maybe even miraculous, and cheaper to construct yet better suited to withstand hurricanes and fires. In 2017, Mr. Ballard co-founded ICON, a construction technology company that is focused on using 3-D printers to help solve the housing crisis that has crushed the dream of homeownership for the majority of young Americans.

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Three 3-D printers branded with the word “Icon” stand inside a white warehouse.

Inside ICON’s headquarters in Austin, Texas. The company has plans for an expansion to Miami soon.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

3-D printing, which builds objects layer by additive layer from a digital file, could be a solution to the beleaguered housing market, where sky-high costs, rock-bottom inventory and a shortage of skilled workers have made prices crushing for the majority of Americans. It’s cheaper than traditional construction. It requires fewer workers to build a home, and significantly less time. And the handful of upstart companies that are using it to successfully build houses say their structures are better suited to withstand hurricanes and fires, as well.

“The future is in this kind of technology,” said Jason Copley, an engineer turned lawyer who is now a partner at Cohen Seglias, a construction and business law firm in New Jersey.

ICON doesn’t publicly disclose its valuation, but it’s estimated to be around $1 billion. The company is based in Austin and is opening a second permanent office in Miami this fall. It is not the only company in this market, but in its size and scope — including a 100-home neighborhood in Texas that is the world’s only 3-D printed community — it is a leader in this emerging space.

“A big chunk of the world still doesn’t believe it, so there’s still this ground game of belief,” said Mr. Ballard, 43. “We just have to continue to put our work out in the world, and see it inhabited.”

‘Can You Print a House?’

In 2011, Mr. Ballard had a different idea to address the affordable housing crisis and climate change. He created an eco-friendly home-improvement store in Austin called Treehouse. Housed in a 25,000-square-foot former Borders bookstore, it was something like a Home Depot but without any of the gas-powered lawn tools and packages wrapped in PVC film.

He had real success — opening two more stores in Texas filled with items like solar panels and nontoxic paint and pulling in angel investors to the tune of $35 million. But peddling cork flooring wasn’t going to move the needle — the ministry of green housing wasn’t reaching the masses.

A mutual friend who was working in 3-D printing introduced him to Alex Le Roux, who had recently graduated from Baylor University.

“Jason is a sales grandmaster,” said Mr. Le Roux, ICON’s former chief technology officer who co-founded the company alongside Mr. Ballard and Evan Loomis. They understood each other: Mr. Le Roux grew up in Houston, hunkering down with his family under Hurricane Rita, and then Ike, and then Harvey.

Climate change, they agreed, was shifting the equation on housing, and the need for a better solution was urgent. Mr. Le Roux had designed a 3-D printer that used concrete to print large-scale projects but was getting pitches to print things like concrete planters and adorable knickknacks.

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Construction workers stand in front of a house under construction, with 3-D printed walls and the frame of a roof showing.

Workers at a 3-D printed house in the Wolf Ranch community in Texas, which is the world’s only 3-D printed housing community.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Image
A woman in a red crop top sits on the back porch of a house with a metal roof and 3-D printed walls.

All of the 3-D printed houses in Wolf Ranch have metal roofs. The walls have soft angles and are ridged like corduroy pants. Owners report significant energy savings.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Mr. Ballard had a different vision: “Can you print a house?”

“He saw this as a technology that addressed a lot of the problems that he saw with housing,” Mr. Le Roux said. “If you look at all the problems in the world, we don’t need more precast piping. We need affordable housing.”

The two men went to work, divvying up their duties. As Mr. Le Roux designed the company’s first printer Vulcan I, Mr. Ballard sought out investors and locked down their first customers.

After a year of working nights and weekends, Vulcan I was ready. It printed the first 3-D printed house in the United States, a 350-square-foot structure with curved walls and a sloped roof, printed over 48 hours with plenty of stops and starts to fix bugs in the printer.

The co-founders exhibited it at South by Southwest and secured $9 million in seed funding.

Houses Built by Vulcans

ICON now has more than 200 houses built in five states and two countries, largely outpacing competitors that are building communities in California and creating printers and cement-like “ink” to sell to builders.

Wolf Ranch, with its 100 houses in Georgetown, Texas, a bedroom community 30 minutes outside of Austin, is ICON’s flagship project. Breaking ground in 2022, the project is 98 percent sold and is currently the largest community of 3-D printed houses in the country.

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A 3-D printer on a track laying lavacrete on top of sloping gray walls.

One of the luxury homes in Wimberley, Texas being printed last October. Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Lennar, one of the country’s largest homebuilders, collaborated with ICON for the development. Bjarke Ingels Group, the architectural firm, codesigned the community’s eight housing models, which each have three or four bedrooms.

The houses are priced between $325,000 and $560,000, slightly below the median home price in Austin. Construction experts say that 3-D printing is a significantly cheaper and faster way to build homes, with most estimates citing a cost savings of around 30 percent.

Each of the homes in Wolf Ranch was built in three weeks or less by a 4.75-ton industrial printer that poured both its exterior and interior walls with lavacrete, a proprietary material made from pulverized red lava rock, cement and water that is squeezed out in layers, much like toothpaste onto a brush.

Video https://vp.nyt.com/video/2025/08/28/147 ... g_720p.mp4

An ICON printer lays proprietary concrete for a house in Wimberley, Texas. When it is poured, it resembles a toothbrush being squeezed onto a brush.CreditCredit...

As an insulator, concrete helps to keep homes naturally cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. ICON estimates its homeowners pay 45 to 60 percent less on energy bills than their neighbors with traditional stick-built houses.

The homes, which are significantly more durable than those made with bricks or wood, are more than three times stronger than the Texas building standard. The walls are certified to handle 200 mile-an-hour winds and at least two hours of fire.

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A worker in a green shirt and gloves stands above a ridged, 3-D printed wall.

A worker places rebar between concrete layers of a home printed by ICON in Wimberley, Texas.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

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3-D printed houses in the community of Wolf Ranch are seen in a row.

The Wolf Ranch homes look similar to homes in master-planned communities in the United States. But look closely and you’ll see the walls are ridged and there are no sharp edges.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Despite its construction, Wolf Ranch’s vibe is suburbia, not sci-fi. It has big master planned energy. But look closely at the homes’ exteriors and you’ll see there are no sharp edges. Constructed by robot, all walls, both inside and out, have soft curved angles and are ridged like corduroy pants.

“The world of real estate is governed by self-fulfilling prophecies, and what is on the market tends to perpetuate itself,” said Bjarke Ingels, the architect. “We pioneers need to start offering something else.”


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Inside one of the model 3-D printed homes at Wolf Ranch, rooms have been staged to entice buyers. The development is now 98 percent sold.Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

The ICON houses come with fixtures, like solar panels and a standing seam metal roof, that are usually reserved for those at a higher cost. The roofs are more durable, energy-efficient and fire-resistant than traditional ones. Wolf Ranch has access to walking trails, fitness centers and a community center with a swimming pool.

From Mexico to Marfa to the Moon

ICON has built other housing in Austin, including 60 tiny homes for chronically homeless residents, with another 60 on the way, and five luxury houses of 3,000 to 4,000 square feet in Wimberley, an Austin exurb that is rapidly developing.

The company has projects in other countries, too — including a small village of 3-D printed houses for impoverished residents of Nacajuca, Mexico — and even other atmospheres. Through a partnership with NASA, the company is gearing up to print houses on the moon.

Nacajuca sits in a seismic zone, and the homes there have already withstood a magnitude 7.4 earthquake despite extensive regional damage.

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Three tiny homes, with yellow, green and peach doors, stand in a row.

ICON has also printed 60 tiny homes for the chronically homeless in Austin. Sixty more are on the way.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

The company has also printed army barracks for the United States armed forces and a 2,000-square-foot, midcentury modern ranch house in East Austin with a net-zero energy output. It is beginning work on El Cosmico, a 60-acre site in Marfa, Texas, which eventually will house model homes, a restaurant and the world’s first 3-D printed hotel, all printed on site in the desert in sand-colored loops and domes. They expect to launch building this fall.

“Everyone laughed about the internet and smartphones, too, at first,” Mr. Ballard said. “There will be a breaking point when we break through.”

That breaking point might be closer than ever.

In 2023, the International Code Council, which is widely seen as the arbiter of building codes throughout the United States, began working to lay out standards for 3-D printed construction. The move will streamline developers’ approval process for 3-D printed houses at the local level.

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Robotic printers seen from above in an empty lot surrounded by shrubs. A finished white house sits next door.

ICON’s robotic printers are seen from above in Wimberley, Texas.Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

Building codes, said Patti Harburg-Petrich, a structural engineer who serves as design executive at the construction company Swinerton, are the number one factor currently preventing the technology from scaling. “For new technology to get permitted, there are a lot of checks,” she said. “That’s really the big driver in terms of why things take so long.” Those standards are likely to be adopted as soon as 2027.

It’s a shift that could bring significant relief to an industry where tariffs, supply chain disruptions and an increase in the price of building materials have caused prices to skyrocket.

But the cost of building the printers — a half a million dollars or more — plus the cost of land have slowed the adoption of 3-D printing, said Jenny Schuetz, a former senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who specializes in housing policy. She now oversees housing strategies for Arnold Ventures, a philanthropic foundation.

Phoenix, and Rising

Still, ICON is moving forward, with 17 active Vulcan printers in its fleet. But in the next two years, the company plans to debut a new prototype, the Phoenix, which it says can print foundations and roofs as well as walls and will be able to build not just houses, but multifamily apartment buildings.

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Homes at Wolf Ranch, with gray steel roofs and grass lawns, stand in a row.

“The world of real estate is governed by self-fulfilling prophecies,” said Bjarke Ingels, the architect, whose firm codesigned the housing models at Wolf Ranch. “We pioneers need to start offering something else.”Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times

In tandem with the development of Phoenix, ICON has created a digital catalog of 60 home designs that its technology can print. They come in five categories: Texas modern, fire-resilient, storm-resilient, affordable and avant-garde. An AI architect, currently in the pilot stage, could allow users to input specific preferences for a home and eventually create custom home-build designs that can then be printed on demand.

“It’s impossible to solve the global housing crisis doing things the way we’ve been doing them,” Mr. Ballard said. “The way it will be solved is through robotics and automation.”

Debra Kamin reports on real estate for The Times, covering what it means to buy, sell and own a home in America today.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/09/05/real ... e9677ea768

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They Went to the Woods Because They Wished to Live Deliberately

Paying homage to the long-dead Transcendentalist, some people are building full-scale replicas of Henry David Thoreau’s Walden cabin.


Jim and Rachel Van Eerden’s “Walden”-inspired cabin in Stokesdale, N.C.Credit...Sebastian Siadecki for The New York Times

By Dorie Chevlen
For this story, Dorie read “Walden” for the first time since high school.

Published Feb. 3, 2026
Updated Feb. 5, 2026
Jasper and Satchel Sieniewicz can’t believe it was a one man job.

As children, their father read to them from Henry David Thoreau’s “Walden,” which includes lengthy descriptions of Thoreau building his cabin at the eponymous pond in Concord, Mass., using hand tools to form beams from fallen timber and upcycling wood from a railroad worker’s shanty. All of it he did alone except for raising the frame with a few friends, though even this Thoreau qualifies as “rather to improve so good an occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity.”

After building a full-scale replica of Thoreau’s cabin in the woods behind their family’s vacation home in Maine, the brothers don’t buy it. Even using a saw mill and power tools, it took them three summers of labor, on and off between school and work beginning the first summer of the pandemic, plus the help of their father, Tom Sieniewicz. Thoreau was living in his cabin in under three months.

“There is no way that he did it by himself in the time period that he said it was done,” said Jasper, now 23.

A man building a wall in a wooded area.
Wood beams and logs form the frame of a cabin in progress.
A man works on the roof of a cabin in the woods.

Satchel and Jasper Sieniewicz used fallen timber to build their cabin in the woods.Credit...Sieniewicz Family

No registry tallies how many people have made replicas of Thoreau’s cabin, but they exist across the country, built for private use, for writers’ retreats, for academic purposes and as Airbnb rentals. Aiding the projects, The Thoreau Society started selling blueprints of the 10-by-15-foot cabin at their gift shop about seven years ago. And at the Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute in Adrian, Mich., you can sign up for a four-week “Walden Cabin series” which teaches all the skills necessary to make your own cabin using only the tools and technologies of the time. (Axe craft gets a week of its own.)

In 1845, Thoreau moved into his one-room cabin in the woods and proceeded to live there for two years, two months and two days in significant (though not total) quietude, seeking, as he wrote, “to front only the essential facts of life.” He published his account of this experience, “Walden; or, Life in the Woods” in 1854.

ImageAn illustration of Henry David Thoreau.

Henry David Thoreau moved to his cabin in 1845.Credit...Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Today, it seems quaint to imagine a man so overwhelmed by 19th-century society that he’d seek such extended retreat. There was no electricity back then, no cellphones, no nudifying A.I. chatbots. But Thoreau’s prescription for a life lived more simply, one more attuned to nature, is an enticing response to this unmatched moment of political, social and technological chaos. It’s likely why his legacy has survived so long; perhaps why he’s far more popular a writer today than he ever was in his own life. (The first print run of 2,000 copies of “Walden” took more than five years to sell; it has since been translated into nearly every language spoken on Earth.)

Perhaps it is also why people are building his cabin.

Building Castles in the Air
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A photo of the title page of “Walden; or, Life in the Woods” features an illustration of a cabin in the woods.

The first edition of “Walden,” published in 1854, included an illustration of his cabin in the woods. Credit...Library of Congress, via Getty Images

The Sieniewicz brothers originally hoped to build a treehouse, but the elder Mr. Sieniewicz, an architect, prohibited them from damaging or removing any living trees on the property, prompting a pivot: “I somehow convinced them that building Henry David Thoreau’s cabin was their idea,” he said.

The boys had visited the site in Concord with their father years prior, but admittedly, the interest in Transcendentalism was mostly his, especially insofar as the philosophy emphasizes individualism, self reliance and a connection to nature. Still, they were game to build the cabin with his blessing, using mostly recycled materials and milling their own wood from fallen trees they found in the forest. “Give a couple teenagers a commercial chain saw, what could happen?” Tom Sieniewicz joked. The boys picked up the new skills they needed by watching YouTube videos; the rest they’d learned as children in woodworking classes.

Not everyone who builds a replica Walden cabin takes as long as the Sieniewicz family because not everyone takes as strict an environmental approach. But like them, most have made it a group effort.

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A room with a brick fireplace and a rug in front of the hearth, wooden chairs next to the fire and framed Henry David Thoreau quotes on the wall.

The Van Eerdens’ cabin features two framed Thoreau quotes, from the first and last chapters of “Walden.” Credit...Sebastian Siadecki for The New York Times

Jim and Rachel Van Eerden had a “barn raising” for their cabin in Stokesdale, N.C., with friends building historically accurate furniture, a contractor working on the frame, and even a blacksmith forging nails in the style of the 1850s. Their “Walden” cabin is the first in a growing series of literature-inspired structures on their homestead property, rented out via Airbnb and VRBO. The listing explicitly warns would-be visitors about the lack of plumbing, electricity and Wi-Fi; showers and toilets are available at nearby “Narnia cottage,” instead.

Their cabin’s interior is nearly true to Thoreau’s model, with even the dents and nicks in the wood desk matching the writer’s own. They made a few additions to the structure though. “We gave ourselves what we called the ‘third year liberty’ where we said, ‘OK, if Thoreau would have stayed a third year, he would have wanted a little front porch. He would’ve wanted a garret,’” said Mr. Van Eerden.

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A couple stands at the door to their cabin, which has a wood-shingled exterior and a chair on the front porch.

Jim and Rachel Van Eerden gave themselves a “third year liberty” in constructing their cabin, imaging what Thoreau would have wanted if he stayed at Walden longer.Credit...Sebastian Siadecki for The New York Times

Jeffrey Ryan had originally planned to build his cabin solo to mimic Thoreau, but he pivoted after nearly falling from an 8-foot ladder. “That’s when I said, ‘Time out, I’m calling for help,’” Mr. Ryan said. He completed the work on his cabin with the help of a childhood friend, building it in the woods behind his house in Maine. In line with Thoreau’s environmentalist ethos, he sourced used and recycled materials wherever possible — many of the wood beams were leftovers from the construction of his main house, the wood stove was a gift from a neighbor, and the antique windows were purchased on Facebook Marketplace. “I’ve stayed remarkably true to his vision,” he said. He also stayed close to Thoreau’s cost: Mr. Ryan spent $1,670 on supplies. Thoreau spent $28.12½; about $1,200 in today’s dollars.

But for others, using Thoreau’s exact methods is beside the point. Kevin Klein built his cabin in the woods behind his house in Hingham, Mass. two years ago, tapping his stepfather, a master carpenter, to help. He paid a contractor to put on the roof and spent roughly $4,500 on materials from Lowe’s. “This isn’t a strict, historical fetishization project,” he said.

Mr. Klein first became acquainted with Thoreau when he was in high school, watching “South Park.” In a Season 1 episode, Cartman wins a writing contest by plagiarizing “Walden” and Mr. Klein, curious and unfamiliar, bought a copy. It still lives on his bookshelf, and he’s read it multiple times.

Simplify, Simplify!

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An open book and candles on a writing desk in front of a window.

The writing desk in the Van Eerdens’ cabin is modeled after the one Thoreau wrote on in “Walden.”Credit...Sebastian Siadecki for The New York Times

Even before “Walden,” critics questioned Thoreau’s motivations for building and moving into his isolated cabin. “I think he touches a lot of nerves,” said Laura Walls, a scholar of American Transcendentalism. “What a lazy bum this guy has to be, not pulling his weight in society and isolating himself like that,” she said, paraphrasing his detractors.

But for fans of Thoreau, that individualism is the appeal, “the whole idea of leaving society behind and rebelling against industrialization and being self-reliant with hand tools,” said Luke Barnett, whose Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute offers the Walden cabin series. Mr. Barnett was first introduced to Thoreau in fifth grade, bribed with Snickers bars as part of a reading program. “I loved it,” he said, “It’s kind of dry, let’s not lie and pretend it’s not. But the concepts in it attracted me and I reread it every few years.”

As a child, Mr. Barnett experienced periods of homelessness and came into his woodworking career after dropping out of high school. Though most of his work involves power tools, Mr. Barnett still sees the value in doing things by hand and offers his class to help empower like-minded woodworkers and outdoors people. “With just those tools, they can build anything they could ever imagine. They do not even need electricity,” he said. “Nobody can ever take that away from you. You are completely self reliant.”

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Short stone pillars in front of an expanse of trees form the shape of a cabin. One pillar has an engraving that reads “Site of Thoreau’s Cabin.”

A hundred years after he lived there, the original site of Thoreau’s cabin in Walden Pond was discovered by Roland Robbins in 1945.Credit...Cody O'Loughlin for The New York Times

In addition to championing self-reliance, Thoreau was an early environmentalist. Today’s Walden Pond is lush with trees, thanks to a state reservation program, but Thoreau witnessed immense swathes of the forest torn down by loggers. He was among the first to decry the loss, and among the first to question the rampant consumerism which drove its degradation. An Abolitionist, Thoreau avoided sugar, which was produced by slave labor, and he wore simple clothes instead of the new Paris fashions.

To be an ethical consumer of food, clothes, shelter or even entertainment today is difficult. But a few hours alone in a simple cabin can offer some perspective. Dr. Walls explained, “The whole point for Thoreau was a deliberate experiment in simplifying our wants — what we think we want — and trying to get to the heart of what it means to live a full life.”

The Great Ocean of Solitude

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The interior of a small cabin with a bed, stove, ladder and a door with windows to a snowy outside.

The Van Eerdens modified Thoreau’s original plans somewhat; theirs has a garret to accommodate more guests. Credit...Sebastian Siadecki for The New York Times

Self reliance doesn’t mean hermitude. It didn’t for Thoreau — while living at Walden, he regularly went into Concord for supplies, visited with friends and ate meals with his family.

But, he also sometimes needed a break. While at Walden, Thoreau read and wrote, swam in the lake, and spent hours in total stillness, raptly observing nature from his doorway. “I grew in those seasons like corn in the night,” Thoreau wrote of the experience.

For Mr. Ryan, his cabin offers a peaceful space just for writing. “The simplicity invites focus,” he said. He has just a kerosene lamp, a desk modeled after Thoreau’s and bookshelves full of research material (to avoid using Google). “It naturally makes me not want to check email impulsively. I’m there to write.”


A cabin-shaped structure in the woods.
A dog stands outside a wood cabin.

Jeffrey Ryan built his cabin with the help of a childhood friend (and lots of visits from his dog, Quoddy).Credit...Jeffrey Ryan

Mr. Klein mostly uses his cabin as a quiet place to smoke his cigars. He, his wife and their four children hike in the woods behind their home and will occasionally sleep out in the cabin, using mats and blankets from the house.

The Van Eerdens only sometimes get to read in their cabin; at about $130 a night, it’s usually booked “We have literally had guests from Germany, from New Zealand, from Paris, from London, all arriving with this excitement about stepping into a book that made a mark on them,” Mr. Van Eerden said. Sometimes the excitement exceeds experience; he’s had to explain to some guests how to start a fire in the fireplace.

Jasper Sieniewicz has read some Thoreau, but not as extensively as his father. “I’m sure it’s instilled in me in ways that I probably am not even really aware of,” he said. His father has furnished the cabin authentically, with hard wooden chairs and a desk; if it were up to Jasper, there’d be a couch instead, but he recognizes that his father will be enjoying more time there than he and his brother, who are busy building their careers as engineers.

Satchel did spend the night there a few years back with his then girlfriend. “I honestly would be too scared to stay there alone,” he said.

“Those woods are spooky.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/real ... e9677ea768