Nonprofit Citizen Robotics says it has built Detroit's first 3D printed home.
The price of the two-bedroom house is capped at $224,500.
See inside the 988-square-foot unit, complete with printed walls and planters.
Looking to move to Detroit? A new two-bedroom home in the Islandview neighborhood might interest you.
The property is quaint, 988 square feet, and located near parks, restaurants, and the Detroit River.
Sure, it has some quirks, like a bright green exterior and a relatively hefty $224,500 listing price. But at least you'd be the first resident to live in the unit.
The catch? You'll have to be open to living in a 3D printed home.
In January, Detroit welcomed its first concrete, 3D printed abode.
Nonprofit Citizen Robotics said this project is its and Detroit's first 3D printed home.
Citizen Robotics
The construction-tech market has already seen plenty of futuristic-looking 3D printed houses with unique curved walls and dramatic concrete accents (exposed brick is so 2023).
But the builder behind this project, nonprofit Citizen Robotics, didn't want to go the avant-garde route for its first house.
Instead, it built an everyday unit, showcasing how printed houses don't have to look as foreign as they might sound.
The new project, nestled in Detroit’s Islandview neighborhood, looks like any other single-family home.
The 988-square-foot home has two bedrooms and a bathroom.
Citizen Robotics
Like many modern units, the living room and kitchen share a small space.
Down the hall, the two bedrooms are separated by a bathroom.
The large columns, finished with a unique layered design, are a signature of construction 3D printers.
Citizen Robotics
The additional smaller room at the end of the hall can be used as a laundry room.
Plus, the home is both energy-efficient and fully electric, according to its builder.
Both bedrooms have built-in closets.
Citizen Robotics
Citizen Robotics said the house is "net-zero ready," which means its energy costs — like the estimated annual $350 needed for heating and cooling — could be fully covered with the addition of solar panels.
Those savings could be necessary for a unit of this price: In January 2024, the median sales price of a single-family home in Detroit was $80,000, according to data from Redfin. That's a brutal difference from the printed home's $224,500 listing price.
Using a robotic printer is undoubtedly a futuristic way to build a home.
Citizen Robotics used a six-axis robot printer.
Citizen Robotics
But it wasn't printed from the ground up.
Instead, printing took place over five days within the project's 15-month construction period, Evelyn Woodman, cofounder and communications director of Citizen Robotics, told Business Insider in an email.
Most 3D printing construction startups only print the walls of their projects.
The "wall segments" were printed in Citizen Robotics' facility and later set up on-site, according to the startup.
Citizen Robotics
Citizen Robotics is no different.
The home's only 3D printed elements are its exterior walls, two interior walls, and the front porch's planters, Woodman said.
But that doesn’t mean it was a cheap gig: The build cost was $230 per square-foot, according to Woodman.
The nonprofit used its $160,000 grant from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority to purchase materials.
Citizen Robotics
To compare, the median sale price of a home in Detroit is currently $67 per square foot.
It takes a village (as in several sponsors) to build a house of this tech-forward magnitude. This includes the state's housing development authority, which supplied a $160,000 grant.
Part of the agreement also included capping its sale price at $224,500.
Many construction 3D printing startups say they can build homes cheaper and faster while using less materials and labor than traditional homebuilding methods.
The project was three years in the making.
Citizen Robotics
The question is: When?
Roadblocks like expensive materials, complex construction requirements, and a still-developing workforce are preventing many 3D printing construction startups from achieving their target costs and efficiency.
However, the tech is still relatively nascent. Enthusiasts like Zachary Mannheimer — the founder and chair of startup Alquist — hope progress will grow exponentially as the tech becomes more widely used and developed.
"I think 2024 is going to be a pretty amazing year for the industry," Mannheimer told Business Insider in late 2023. "Next summer, I think you'll see this thing begin to take off, not just for us but for all the companies."
Hopefully, it'll be "amazing" for Citizen Robotics as well: Woodman said the Detroit home has been on the market for several months.
Most concrete 3D printed homes are weather and fireproof.
Citizen Robotics
According to the nonprofit's cofounder, the unit has seen plenty of interest but no concrete buyers yet.
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