{"id":30654,"date":"2023-11-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-has-a-housing-crisis-could-3d-printed-homes-be-a-solution\/"},"modified":"2023-11-15T18:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T18:00:00","slug":"colorado-has-a-housing-crisis-could-3d-printed-homes-be-a-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-has-a-housing-crisis-could-3d-printed-homes-be-a-solution\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado has a housing crisis. Could 3D-printed homes be a solution?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Exterior
Exterior of the new Habitat for Humanity 3D printed house Monday Dec. 20, 2021.<\/span>Rob Osterrmaier<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While, to some, 3D printing might still sound like an obscure hobby, many are beginning to see the technology as a potential boost to the construction industry and a solution for the nation\u2019s housing shortage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had followed this technology for some time,\u201d Cheri Witt-Brown, CEO for Greeley-Weld Habitat for Humanity, said. \u201cFor the first few years it was a little bit more expensive, clumsy, maybe not cost effective enough for affordable housing, but certainly a viable construction technology.\u201d<\/p>\n

The finished houses looked pretty much like any other single family home. Stone and white-painted wood pillars held up the front porch and traditional roof. Large windows sat on either side of a black front door. The only noticeable difference was a corduroy texture on the white exterior walls, due to the layers of printed cement.<\/p>\n

It was during a visit on behalf of Habitat for Humanity to an Alquist 3D project Virginia \u2013 Alquist is the company that built the first owner-occupied 3D-printed home in the U.S. \u2013 that Witt-Brown became a believer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been in this business for over 37 years, and it\u2019s the first thing that\u2019s come along that will revolutionize the industry,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The homes went up faster, were more energy efficient and were easier to maintain. And the walls proved to be more resistant to natural disasters, like wildfires, an important benefit for Colorado.<\/p>\n

And right now, 3D-printed buildings cost roughly the same as lumber-built homes, according to Alquist. They said as the technology improves, supply lines solidify and the scale of projects increases, the overall price of their homes should drop 20 to 30-percent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where we\u2019re heading. We\u2019re not there yet today, but within the next 24 months, we believe we will be,\u201d Alquist Founder and Chairman Zachary Mannheimer said.<\/p>\n

Mannheimer and much of the Alquist staff are in the process of moving their headquarters to Greeley, Colorado, as part of the company\u2019s national expansion.<\/p>\n

\u201cSolving our housing crisis is all hands on deck,\u201d Gov. Jared Polis said in the news release welcoming the company to the Front Range. \u201cInnovative solutions like Alquist 3D and communities like Greeley are crucial to our success in lowering construction costs for housing and infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alquist had been in discussions with six different states. Mannheimer said incentives and agreements made Colorado the best fit.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreeley has all the pieces in a recipe for how [the industry] could actually grow organically,\u201d Mannheimer said.<\/p>\n

The tax credits and other incentives offered by the state and the city total more than $4 million. In exchange, the company expects to eventually create about 79 new jobs, with an average annual wage of $73,987, based out of a new showroom and production facility.<\/p>\n

Mannheimer said its new Colorado home will be the only place where 3D concrete printing robots are designed, built and used to build homes alongside a purpose-built workforce development program.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re viewing this, Greeley, as the epicenter of the 3D printing movement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Alquist\u2019s expansion is part of a budding industry, as startups race to prove their technology is faster, greener, safer and cheaper than traditional residential construction.<\/p>\n

In Colorado Springs, a 3D home printing startup named StructureBot works out of CEO Jim Scott\u2019s garage.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building large-scale, 3D construction printers,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

Scott\u2019s whole garage is filled with a functioning prototype: a 16\u00d716 foot gantry system all supporting the robotic movements of a simple enough looking nozzle. It\u2019s the programming which guides that nozzle and the concrete mixture that comes out of it that could change the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can use any number of other chemistries to do the same kind of work,\u201d said StructureBot Chief Innovation Officer, Cameron McRoberts.<\/p>\n

He listed examples like additives that would make the final walls stronger, or materials like red clays found in Colorado that would make the cement workable at lower temperatures.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s current 16\u00d716 foot design only builds walls enclosing about 300 square feet, appropriate for projects like bus shelters or tiny homes. The company currently has a small grant from the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International trade.<\/p>\n

But, Scott said, they are busy designing a 40-foot-wide version of their system that can run much larger projects.<\/p>\n

Similarly, Alquist will begin a partnership with the city of Greeley, likely before the end of the year, printing curbs and other infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Alquist is also teaming up with Aims Community College to create a program that will train students on how to use and manufacture Alquist printing robots. The college claims the program will be a first of its kind.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou could literally say the book hasn\u2019t been written,\u201d said John Mangin, Aims Construction and Engineering Technology Department Chair.<\/p>\n

3D printing education already exists at Aims Community College; it\u2019s been part of its computer aided drafting program for years. That program has largely focused on the skills necessary for tasks like making small plastic models of objects designed on a screen \u2013 what most people still imagine when they think of \u20183D printing.\u2019<\/p>\n

But the new certificate in 3D concrete printing for homebuilding will sit within the construction management department. The program anticipates its first graduates by mid-2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a different wall system, but it\u2019s still a residential construction project when it comes down to what we\u2019re actually doing,\u201d said Mangin. \u201cYou\u2019re still going to have \u2013 obviously \u2013 plumbing, electrical and mechanical, that kind of stuff. So, that will likely be where students start.\u201d<\/p>\n

3D concrete printing robots can only build walls, currently. And, while those walls can be just about any shape, incorporating curves just as easily as straight lines and right angles, the technology as it exists now cannot build trusses or roofs. And, with notable exceptions, the robots can only build one-story tall structures.<\/p>\n

Mangin said even students who graduate directly into jobs with Alquist will need an understanding of the rest of the homebuilding process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn a lot of ways, this new technology is really sliding right into a lot of what we\u2019re already doing,\u201d Mangin said. \u201cExcept for that real specific portion about the 3D concrete printing, which is brand new.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Greeley-Weld Habitat has begun a small partnership with Alquist. They expect to build between five and 10 houses at its 174-home Hope Springs development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will actually \u2018office\u2019 in the first home,\u201d Witt-Brown said, \u201cSo that we can live in it, we can see how it feels, we can experience, \u2018What does it feel like to spend eight hours in the 3D-printed home?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

If those initial homes turn out as well as she hopes, she could see her organization approving 50 Alquist homes in 2025 and more beyond that.<\/p>\n

\u201c (It\u2019s) something that I already feel like I can see the outcomes,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we have to prove that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Exterior of the new Habitat for Humanity 3D printed house Monday Dec. 20, 2021.Rob Osterrmaier While, to some, 3D printing might still sound like an obscure hobby, many are beginning to see the technology as a potential boost to the construction industry and a solution for the nation\u2019s housing shortage. \u201cI had followed this technology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[120,28,453],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-30654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-colorado","tag-headlines","tag-housing-and-urban-planning"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30654"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}