Jason Ballard, the CEO and co-founder of 3D printing architecture company ICON, doesn't mince his words. "There are certain people who are content to build a really ugly or uninspiring world," he said. "We're not. The day I walk outside and see something ugly being built by one of my robots -- that's a nightmare scenario for me."

Ballard, a quick-talking Texan in a 10-gallon hat, has a vision for the future of architecture. Others are buying into it. Since launching in 2017, Austin-based ICON has received close to half a billion dollars in funding, won a contract with NASA and paired up with influential architects like Bjarke Ingels. If all goes according to plan, ICON will be building on the moon before the end of the decade.

But first, the CEO wanted to discuss a moonshot much closer to home.

ICON made its name creating houses using a high strength concrete it calls "Lavacrete," printed in layers to form walls. A large machine ICON named the "Vulcan" does the printing, fed by an on-site mixing system dubbed "Magma."

The company's first house was unveiled in 2018, and since then its operations have scaled up, from a collection of six homes in 2020 to a 100-home community north of Austin currently under construction (the largest printed community in the US). At each stage, the footprint of properties has increased, from 350 square feet to over 2,000 square feet, as the technology has advanced and 3D-printed homes have moved from prototype to novelty to relatively mainstream.

A thread running through ICON's work is building homes for disadvantaged people, including accommodation for the long-term homeless, often in collaboration with non-profits. Creating affordable housing is also an objective, which led the company to launch design competition Initiative 99 last month.

Initiative 99 seeks submissions for homes that can be 3D-printed for $99,000 or less. Ballard described it as "a call to arms for the global architecture and design community" to get to grips with "one of the most pressing industries in need of a rethink."

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2021 found about half of Americans reported affordable housing was a "major problem" in their area. One estimate from late 2020 calculated the US had a housing supply deficit of 3.8 million units.

Peggy Bailey is vice president of housing and income security at progressive US think tank the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Bailey explained that in the US, many people struggle to pay for their accommodation. "Even before the pandemic and economic downturn, 23 million people lived in 11 million low-income households that paid more than 50% of their income for rent," she told CNN via email.

"Innovative ways to build housing are a promising step toward creating more affordable housing," she added, while cautioning, "the housing affordability crisis isn't due to a single issue or event. Multifaceted problems require multifaceted solutions."

The idea for Initiative 99 came from an internal exercise ICON has run every six months for the past five years, to see what can be constructed for $99,000 with the technology available. "This year we hit an inflection point," said Ballard. "The results were very compelling. It immediately dawned on all of us (that) we've got to tell everybody about this."

The ICON CEO said Initiative 99's $1 million prize fund will be the largest ever for an affordable housing competition. The competition will launch on May 23 and run for a year, with stages for concept development, schematic design and design development. There will be multiple winners and their designs will be built by ICON.

Ballard hopes the competition receives entries tailored to meet cultures and contexts around the world, addressing specific needs and challenges.
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Bailey suggested the success of 3D-printed housing could hinge on how it is perceived by prospective residents. "One thing to keep in mind with any innovation in housing development, including 3D-development ... is that the housing must fit in the rental market and be of the quality and style that any person would want to live in," she said.