Welcome to the second annual Automate Construction Power Ranking. The one time of year I compare startups against each other using a carefully crafted & transparent rubric in an imperfect attempt to measure their power in the construction automation industry. This is not a ranking of investment quality or a predictor of success. Certainly not …
Author Archives: Jarett Gross
I, House
Manufacturing is difficult and more important than ever. Most people underestimate the complexity behind simple things especially when they cost a fraction of a dollar but even object that can be acquired for small change require an army of skilled people to deliver the final product. This was the core thesis of “I, Pencil” written …
Every 3D Printed Airbnb Home
Having stayed in some myself, I realized there are probably many people around the world eager for the experience to stay in a 3D printed house and today there are many opportunities to do so at various price points. I took the liberty of sharing every Airbnb link I could find for 3D printed houses …
Opinion: The only true failure at Icon 3D is their PR
Dear Icon 3D, Engineering is hard. Maybe harder than anything else in the world. No reasonably intelligent person expects a brand new technology to work perfectly on the first iteration, hell even the 10th iteration. Take a look at SpaceX for example (currently worth $350 Billion), I just went to a launch in Boca Chica, …
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World of Concrete 2025
It’s that time of year again! World of Concrete is currently one of the biggest gatherings of 3DCP folks all year so I stopped by to see what they are up to (even though I still think WOC should give 3DCP more attention and priority). This year I am doing an article instead of a …
Breaking New Ground – Evan Maindonald, GP of Hyperlight Ventures
Some of the long time fans of Automate Construction might know that I love reading! In a world of short form content, few things are more satisfying than spending a multi hour chunk on one topic guided by someone who put immense thought and care intro crafting the journey that is a book, story, or …
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Every Humanoid Robot 2024
Startups and tech giants around the world are competing to build the best humanoid robot soon I’ll be visiting projects like this in person and interviewing their Founders for now let’s run through all of the competitors in this space and see what they’re up to we’ll start stationary and get more advanced as we …
3D Printing Concrete Directly From Mixer Truck
Is on site batch plant mixing obsolete? I recently spent 3 weeks in Calgary Canada commuting daily into the indigenous territory of the Siksika nation where Nidus 3D was printing the 3rd and 4th quadplexes from their 16 unit pilot project in the region. On the first visit in 2023 Nidus was using the batch …
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Construction Automation Advancing On All Fronts: ICON SXSW 2024
Automate construction. It’s a simple sentence. Short. What it conveys may be the single most important realm of progress to uplift humanity on a global scale. Rising housing costs, increasing natural disasters, aging labor forces… AI won’t fix that in the cloud, only manufacturing can. Nearly every industry has been completely transformed in the past …
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Automate Construction Power Ranking 2024
First of all I would like to congratulate everyone who made this list, I spend all my time keeping both eyes peeled on the latest construction automation projects and in the past 5 years of following the industry I’ve accumulated nearly 400 companies who I believe are paving the road to construction automation. For this …
Fannie Mae Includes 3D Printed Homes in Latest Selling Guide
The biggest news is that they determined 3d printed homes fall in line with any other form of construction. Has 3D printed construction gone mainstream? Is this a responsible choice? Check out the official Selling Guide Announcement https://singlefamily.fanniemae.com/media/36766/display This will certainly enable many projects which were previously stuck on the back-burner but I am not …
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Groundbreaking Innovations in 3D Printed Construction: Lessons from IAAC and the Future of Sustainable Architecture
The Rise of Geopolymer Buildings | A World First
In the realm of 3D printed construction, geopolymer has long been hailed as an eco-friendly alternative to traditional concrete. However, until now, the world had yet to witness the creation of a 3D printed geopolymer building. In this exciting video, we delve into not only the groundbreaking 3D printed geopolymer building but also explore a …
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Icon 3D Printing 100 Homes with Lennar near Austin, Tx
Discovering how economies of scale impact 3D printed houses has been one of the most highly anticipated aspects of the tech. I got the unique opportunity to visit the active construction site where Icon currently has 7 of their Vulcan concrete printers extruding their proprietary Lavacrete mix. CEO Jason Ballard and I walked around brand …
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Live Prints & Top 10 Automation Firms from World of Concrete 2023
This year World of Concrete hosted many familiar 3DCP faces and some new teams too! I got interviews with RIC, Sika, Spacecrete, Geopolymer International, Cobod, Arc3D, Renca, Quickcrete, Ventures Equipment, and Mapei! I’ll try to give a little overview of what each had to share from the event. You can watch the interviews at the bottom …
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Rebuild 3DCP in Poland
Poland has been in the spotlight recently due to its proximity to conflict areas. By total coincidence, in close time proximity to when stray missiles hit Polish land I was scheduled to speak with the CEO of Rebuild 3DCP, Witold on the Automate Construction podcast. Rebuild is the company responsible for printing the first house …
10,000 Sqft 3D Printed Building
Printed Farms is at it again in Wellington Florida, you may recall the printed garage they built which I filmed on site very early on. Since then they printed a house in Tallahassee as well which I have also filmed extensively with the contractor from the job, precision builders. Now Printed Farms is onto their …
Printing Metal with Lasers
Meltio 3D is a Spanish startup developing metal printing extruder heads used around the world. Their system uses lasers to melt the inconel or other materials into a very dense custom formed part not limited by traditional casting or forging restrictions. This technology is opening up new design opportunities to make parts lighter and less …
Autonomously Constructed Homes For Sale by Diamond Age
Diamond Age wants to automate construction and they have been doing a pretty solid job so far! Earlier this year they announced 27 tools which will be utilized by an on site construction gantry system. So far 8/27 tools have been developed in a beta stage including a detachable concrete printing extruder head. This all …
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Texas Startup Prints Regular Concrete
Andrey Rudenko is back! The same man who brought you the famous 3D printed castle pictured below has teamed up with Timothy Lankau, CEO of Hive 3D in Texas to print a residential structure utilizing standard portland cement from the local store. The ability to use a standard cement mix without having to ship in …
Emergent 3D Printed First Home in CA, How Much Did It Cost?
Everyone knows California is one of the most challenging markets for construction. The rules are strict, taxes are high and everything is wildly expensive. A quick google search will tell you the average construction cost in CA is $400-$600 a sqft in 2022 (modular coming in at $200-$300). 3D printed construction startup Emergent 3D was …
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Icon Beginning Largest 3DCP Housing Community With Lennar
Icon and Lennar just announced they are moving forward with the largest community of 3D printed homes on the planet! The homes in Georgetown north of Austin, Tx will start around $400k. Unlike Icons other homes these feature substantial interior printed walls. Each one will range from 1,574 to 2,112 sqft. I am in touch …
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How long does it take to 3D print a house?
General Construction Stats & Sources 9/10 cost overrun http://www.ijimt.org/vol8/717-MP0022.pdf Over 3 years only 10% came within 10% of budget Large projects 20% longer to finish, Mckinsey study shows construction productivity declining since the 90’s https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/imagining-constructions-digital-future Poor communication leads to 1/3rd issues https://info.coreworx.com/blog/pmi-study-reveals-poor-communication-leads-to-project-failure-one-third-of-the-time Productivity changes could save 1.63 trillion/ year https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projects-and-infrastructure/our-insights/infrastructure-productivity HOW LONG DOES A 3D …
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3D Printed Concrete Recipe
Written by Howard Stone We have now seen many 3D architectural printing projects and one thing that many of them have in common is the cement based mix they print with.There are many materials that can be used in 3D printing but Portland cement is an easily engineered common product available world wide. So, just …
50 3D Printed Houses & Buildings
Printed house per day House Name Location Printer Operator Video 1 Africa t3 House Angola Cobod Power 2 Build 2 House Zero austin ICON https://youtu.be/lrkflIe94tY 3 BeMore3D Morocco BeMore3D 4 Project Milestone the Netherlands Weber beamix https://youtu.be/NQ_yRnWms3g 5 First 2 Story house in india India L&T 6 Demo House patchogue SQ4D 7 SXSW 2018 House …
THE FUTURE OF 3D THE PRINTED
BUILDINGS IN AFRICA
Written By Uyanwune, Ordinakachukwu ABSTRACT – 3D printed buildings is the future the construction industry. Thecurrent world population is about 8.0 billion as of 2022 according to the mostrecent United Nations estimates . More people means more housing. 3D printed building is here as a potential problem solver, it is cost-effectiveness (cheaper construction), faster Construction, …
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BUILDINGS IN AFRICA”
Materials Mixtures & Fibers in Printed Concrete
3D concrete printing is an additive manufacturing technology that is attracting attention from the construction sector for its potential to increase productivity and product quality. In Indonesia, 3D concrete printing technology is uncommon in construction activities, in contrast to the developed countries. The main challenge with using 3D concrete printing technology is determining the composition …
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How to 3D Print a House
3D Printed Construction has taken the world by storm time and time again, it seems each time a new project launches the world gets even more excited as this technology starts to bring the initial promises of cheap/ fast construction closer to reality at scale. In my journeys around the world and of course nearly …
Secret SpaceX 3D Printed Building in Texas
For a long time I’ve wondered why Elon never participated in 3D printed construction. As such a big fan of automation I would think he would have at least mentioned it once or twice but it turns out his company SpaceX has been experimenting with this technology more than the public was aware (until now). …
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Omlab is Replacing Cement with Toilet Paper and Calcium
Everyone always asks how can 3D printed concrete be better for the environment? Here is a potential solution! Traditional 3D printed concrete (can I say that yet?) uses a very high portion of cement in the mix compared to regular concrete that would get poured in a formwork. Omlab asks the question, How can we …
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