Inside curving 3D printed home. House Zero by Lake|Flato / ICON
03/03/2022.
[Austin - TX] USA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
ICON has completed a 3D-printed home in Austin, Texas designed by Lake|Flato. Named “House Zero,” the home adopts a “mid-century modernist ranch house aesthetic” while also exploring how 3D printing can enhance resilience and sustainability.
The project comprises a main three-bedroom home spanning over 186 square meters (2000 square feet), and a one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit spanning 33 square meters (350 square feet).
The project comprises a main three-bedroom home spanning over 186 square meters (2000 square feet), and a one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit spanning 33 square meters (350 square feet).
House Zero by Lake|Flato. Photograph by Casey Dunn
House Zero by Lake|Flato. Photograph by Casey Dunn
House Zero by Lake|Flato. Photograph by Casey Dunn
House Zero by Lake|Flato. Photograph by Casey Dunn
House Zero by Lake|Flato. Photograph by Casey Dunn
Section. House Zero by Lake|Flato.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
ICON's House Zero - 3D-printed Home.
The walls of the home designed by Lake|Flato were constructed using “Lavacrete,” a 3D printed cement-based material, with combines with insulation and steel reinforcement to form the external envelope. The team believes that the thermal mass properties of Lavacrete will enhance energy efficiency by slowing heat transfer, increasing insulation, and providing a more airtight envelope.
The curved 3D printed walls also mark the home inside, with rounded corners creating soft, natural circulation routes through the home.
“While the organic nature of the 3D-printed concrete and curved walls are new design languages for us, House Zero was still entirely in line with the natural connections we seek in our architecture”
Ashley Heeren, Associate at Lake|Flato.
Project description by Lake|Flato
House Zero is a demonstration project and field trial for ICON’s proprietary concrete wall printing system. More than that, House Zero is also a compelling and climate-responsive new home connecting its inhabitants to a native Texas landscape and an evolving Austin neighbourhood fabric. Built for permanence and resilience, the plan allows for the flexibility of ever-evolving patterns of living and ageing-in-place that a family experiences over the course of a lifetime.
Lake|Flato collaborated intensely with ICON’s software developers, robotics engineers, and material scientists to create a new set of architectural innovations and strategies for printed concrete construction. The LF team then put these innovations to use designing a welcoming, practical home that is desirable, livable, and that expands the performance capabilities of 3D printing technology. Designed for net-zero energy, the house features a thermally broken, robustly insulated envelope and a rapid software-controlled construction process, showcasing and pushing the current limits of additive manufacturing at the scale of a building.
The house expresses its construction materials proudly: the concrete walls are framed and protected by simple ordered wood elements. Automation has been considered in all aspects of the project, which utilizes the prefabrication of structural members and interior components to maximize speed and efficiency in construction. And although the house is made using new robotic printing processes, its natural wood and exposed concrete surfaces provide a timeless and rooted-to-the-earth quality, drawing attention to the natural world and its physical forces.
In keeping with Lake|Flato’s longstanding explorations of buildings and craft, this is a house distilled down to essentials. House Zero uses new technology to display enduring things: the honest effort and the raw materials needed to provide lasting shelter, and a deep-rooted sense of place and home.
More information
Ted Flato, David Lake. Lake|Flato
Lake|Flato, is a Texas architecture firm created in 1984, by Ted Flato and David Lake. Its professional staff has over 100, including 50 registered architects, 42 LEED-accredited professionals, and a sustainability manager. Ten partners empower teams that lead each project from beginning to completion.
Lake|Flato has gained national recognition for architecture that is grounded in the belief that design and sustainability are inseparable pieces of a coherent, place-based approach to building that successfully merges with the landscape. Lake|Flato’s work has received wide critical acclaim in more than 300 international, national and regional awards, including the American Institute of Architects Firm of the Year Award in 2004 and 13 Top Ten Green Project Awards from the AIA Committee on the Environment.
Lake|Flato has gained national recognition for architecture that is grounded in the belief that design and sustainability are inseparable pieces of a coherent, place-based approach to building that successfully merges with the landscape. Lake|Flato’s work has received wide critical acclaim in more than 300 international, national and regional awards, including the American Institute of Architects Firm of the Year Award in 2004 and 13 Top Ten Green Project Awards from the AIA Committee on the Environment.
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