WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:03.280 JUDY WOODRUFF: It's often said that there's no place like home. 00:03.280 --> 00:08.280 But what if that home was built with a 3-D printer? Only a small handful of people in the 00:09.040 --> 00:14.040 U.S. currently live in these types of houses, but some believe this will soon change because of 3-D 00:15.280 --> 00:20.280 printing technology's potential to reduce construction costs, construction times and costs. 00:21.280 --> 00:22.480 Stephanie Sy reports 00:22.480 --> 00:26.000 STEPHANIE SY: April Stringfield has been 00:26.000 --> 00:29.360 laser-focused on a single goal for much of her adult life. 00:29.360 --> 00:32.880 APRIL STRINGFIELD, Homeowner: I used to work two and three jobs because I was determined that I 00:32.880 --> 00:37.880 was going to get a home. From home health care, motel, I did call center at home. 00:39.360 --> 00:44.360 I just kept my fingers crossed, kept doing what I'm doing, working hard, saving money. 00:44.800 --> 00:49.760 STEPHANIE SY: With the help of Habitat for Humanity, Stringfield, her 13-year old son, 00:49.760 --> 00:53.920 Azayveon, and their dog, Tink (ph), moved in to a house in Williamsburg, 00:53.920 --> 00:57.840 Virginia two months ago, a house of her own. 00:57.840 --> 01:02.320 APRIL STRINGFIELD: Getting something I always wanted and to see your dream come true, 01:02.320 --> 01:05.920 still in shock just a little bit that it is finally true. 01:05.920 --> 01:08.240 STEPHANIE SY: The house is unique. 01:08.240 --> 01:10.000 This is not just any ordinary home. 01:10.000 --> 01:12.720 APRIL STRINGFIELD: Right. It's a 3-D printed. 01:12.720 --> 01:17.720 STEPHANIE SY: A 3-D printed home, one Stringfield saw go up before her eyes in just over a day, 01:20.480 --> 01:25.120 layer by layer of concrete efficiently squeezed out of a printing machine, 01:25.662 --> 01:27.840 preprogrammed with a digital blueprint. 01:27.840 --> 01:32.840 APRIL STRINGFIELD: I watched it from, it was like flat land, and so building up. It was awesome. 01:35.440 --> 01:36.000 JONATHAN RECKFORD, CEO, Habitat for Humanity: We're 01:36.000 --> 01:38.880 really excited to be doing these vanguard moves. 01:38.880 --> 01:43.880 STEPHANIE SY: Jonathan Reckford is Habitat for Humanity's CEO. The nonprofit, which 01:44.240 --> 01:49.240 helps people in need build and upgrade homes, has high hopes for 3-D-printed houses, at a time when 01:51.280 --> 01:56.280 labor and material costs are skyrocketing and affordable housing is more and more scarce. 01:56.880 --> 01:59.040 JONATHAN RECKFORD: And so our hope with 3-D printing is, 01:59.040 --> 02:03.520 this is the beginning of the curve, but will lead to learnings that could mainstream ways 02:03.520 --> 02:07.840 that could either speed up construction or lower the cost of construction for us. 02:07.840 --> 02:12.560 STEPHANIE SY: The U.S. currently faces a shortage of about four million homes, 02:12.560 --> 02:17.360 and more than one in four renters currently pay more than half their income in rent. 02:17.360 --> 02:19.040 JASON BALLARD, CEO & Co-Founder, ICON: I think the best way to address that problem 02:19.040 --> 02:21.440 holistically is with robotic approaches to construction. 02:21.440 --> 02:24.400 STEPHANIE SY: Jason Ballard is CEO of ICON, 02:24.400 --> 02:29.400 an Austin-based company that built the U.S.'s first permitted 3-D-printed home in 2018. 02:31.280 --> 02:33.680 JASON BALLARD: The more affordable and simplified supply chain, 02:33.680 --> 02:36.640 combined with an order of magnitude fewer humans, that's what gives you 02:36.640 --> 02:41.280 sort of this initial jolt of cost savings and improvements in speed of delivery. 02:41.280 --> 02:45.040 STEPHANIE SY: But experts say it will be a while before 3-D-printed 02:45.040 --> 02:47.920 homes live up to their promise and go mainstream. 02:47.920 --> 02:52.400 MARK STAPP, Arizona State University: I would say, with between five and 10 years, we may see more of 02:52.400 --> 02:57.400 it, if it continues to prove to be an effective, efficient means of construction delivery. 02:59.680 --> 03:04.680 STEPHANIE SY: Mark Stapp is a property developer and the director of Arizona State University's 03:04.960 --> 03:09.960 real estate program. He says, while 3-D printing may reduce the cost of a structure's frame, 03:11.840 --> 03:14.240 a frame doesn't make a complete house. 03:14.240 --> 03:19.240 MARK STAPP: You have got plumbing, electrical, mechanical, so, air conditioning, heating, 03:19.840 --> 03:24.840 et cetera, that all need to be incorporated. You have finishes to walls. You have got 03:25.120 --> 03:26.800 windows that have to now be installed. 03:26.800 --> 03:28.160 There's a whole bunch of other things that, 03:29.120 --> 03:32.960 one, products have to be adapted, and two, you have to train the labor. 03:32.960 --> 03:37.960 STEPHANIE SY: Critics also say the proprietary blends of materials used to print buildings 03:39.120 --> 03:44.120 vary by project and are largely untested, compared with traditional building materials. 03:45.280 --> 03:50.240 Cities such as Austin have approved some 3-D-printed homes under building codes. 03:50.240 --> 03:55.240 And ICON's founder Ballard, who, in a previous career, worked with the homeless population, 03:55.520 --> 04:00.400 says it's only a matter of time before 3-D-printed housing is embraced widely. 04:00.400 --> 04:04.080 JASON BALLARD: That's what we're after, a complete solution to the global housing crisis 04:04.080 --> 04:06.080 in our lifetimes. That's what we're after. 04:06.080 --> 04:10.560 I think, one day, the sort of narrative will be, how on earth can we still build with a stick 04:10.560 --> 04:15.560 frame, when we know that these resilient materials are readily available? It's very much early days, 04:16.000 --> 04:18.000 but I think it's going to proceed like all revolutions, 04:18.000 --> 04:19.760 like, slowly at first and then all at once. 04:19.760 --> 04:24.760 STEPHANIE SY: Back in Virginia, April Stringfield is busy making her house feel more like a home. 04:25.600 --> 04:29.120 Are there any other things about the concrete home that feel different? 04:29.120 --> 04:33.200 APRIL STRINGFIELD: No, it's only really the outside of it, 04:34.400 --> 04:39.400 you know how it was built, but the inside is just like a regular home. The home is great. 04:39.920 --> 04:41.840 STEPHANIE SY: Her favorite part? 04:41.840 --> 04:44.800 APRIL STRINGFIELD: I love my kitchen. I wanted lemons, 04:45.440 --> 04:50.000 so I have lemons sort of there, here, towels and stuff. 04:52.160 --> 04:54.560 STEPHANIE SY: Lemon-themed kitchen? 04:54.560 --> 04:58.640 APRIL STRINGFIELD: Lemon-themed kitchen, mm-hmm, something bright, I guess, happy color, yellow. 04:58.640 --> 05:03.200 STEPHANIE SY: A happy color for a happy 3-D-printed home. 05:03.760 --> 05:08.760 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Stephanie Sy.