zero Ready, Set, Print

A timeless and thought-provoking home in Holly artfully boasts a breakthrough in sustainable construction.

When you contrast the organic nature of the concrete – the beads of material, in particular – with the rectilinear geometry, the balance is really astonishing.”

0n a sleepy corner lot, a crisp, single-story roofline rests elegantly above ten evenly spaced laminated wood beams. Modest, yet elevated, in its street presence, the home bears many hallmarks of its renowned Texan architect, Lake | Flato, resembling a breezy, modern ranch appropriately scaled to its East Austin neighborhood.

But something about this home is markedly different from its neighbors. Beneath its taut canopy unfurl monolithic walls of gray concrete that arc and undulate in the sunlight, a closer inspection reveals thin striations of texture otherwise known as beads, which are neatly stacked in one-inch increments.

Beautiful and performative, the walls of the home are its centerpiece, showcasing the emerging potential of an as-of-yet unconventional and highly efficient method of construction: 3D-printed walls. Pioneered by ICON, an Austin-based startup founded in 2017, the home is one of the first to thoughtfully explore 3D-printing in a way that doesn’t sacrifice quality for viability, earning global attention and myriad of accolades for its success.

After inviting architects to consider ways to design a home that takes advantage of its 3D-printing process, ICON awarded the project to Lake | Flato, a firm well-known for its sensitive, sustainable approach to architecture.

“The process was highly collaborative,” says Melodie Yashar, Vice President of Building and Design Performance at ICON. The Lake | Flato team “was interested in iterating on new details with us. We would offer provocations for them to respond to, such as the form of the ripples in the façade. We knew what our software was capable of, but this was our first chance to demonstrate some of these new methods,” she explains.

For a research project conceptualized as a test bed for a home-building revolution, the resulting structure is both delightfully refined and confidently at ease compared to its high-end residential counterparts peppering Austin’s landscape.

Its interiors are bright and comfortable; the circulation between its three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, and shared spaces are informed by careful wall placement as the ribbed material flows continuously from exterior to interior. The warm material palette of the home complements varied light play against the walls’ rippled surfaces, creating moments of serenity and drama throughout the day.

Outside, a modest one-bedroom, one-bathroom accessory dwelling unit affords additional living space for communal living.

ICON’s walls, which use a proprietary, cementitious-based material the company calls “Lavacrete,”

Around Town

The Long Center recently unveiled a new performance pavilion, also 3D printed by ICON.

Did You Know?

ICON’s ‘Initiative 99’ is a global architecture competition that is accepting entries envisioning the future of affordable, 3D-printed homes.

were printed in only two weeks of the six-month construction schedule and are insulative, self-supported, and save time and material when compared to traditional construction. The calibrations that ICON makes during the printing process allow for control of environmental factors such as humidity and balancing the viscosity of the mixture to create a structurally sound and esthetically uniform finish that is at once graceful and playfully sinuous.

As a case study, the home represents a concrete step toward making these construction methods accessible to architects and homeowners alike.

Looking to the future, ICON is leveraging its expertise in several aspirational initiatives, including an innovative, 100-home planned community, bespoke hospitality accommodations at El Cosmico in Marfa, and a collaboration with NASA to design 3D-printed buildings on the moon.

Contact: iconbuild.co 220 E St Elmo Rd.

Our neighborhood is amazing, and we have deep friendships with our neighbors. And we use every square inch of this home, every day.”

–Brittany Dadon

An East 6th Oasis

Top-Down Approach

After falling in love with East Austin while enrolled in law school at the University of Texas, Brittany Dadon and her husband Darryl scooped up a dilapidated 1940s bungalow on a prime East 6th plot. Enamored with the neighborhood’s energy, people, history, and culture, the couple quickly made the property livable and set to work on broader ambitions for the site.

With a growing family in mind, the duo enlisted J.C. Schmeil of Merzbau Design Collective to guide their planning, which started with the construction of a generous two-story accessory dwelling unit, built in six months while the pair lived in a trailer on the site. Meanwhile, the bungalow was hoisted onto a flatbed trailer and donated to Jumping Jack Dog Ranch, a local non-profit, where it was repurposed to accommodate staff living on the premises.

Once the ADU was complete, attention turned to the main house and the private backyard that would reside between the two structures.

Flexible Living

Brittany and Darryl have made the ADU their home office, while the attic is now a playroom for their young daughter and son.

As architects, we’re not always taught how to work with clients who show up with an excellent vision, and you have to learn how to step back and follow their lead. This project is an example of the success you can have when you take that approach.”

– J.C. Schmeil

“I had never designed a house from the top-down before,” explained J.C., “but with the main house, we started in the attic, designing an office that would eventually become a playroom that framed views of downtown.”

By starting from the top, the designers took advantage of Austin’s “habitable attic exemption” which allowed the addition of the third-floor space without contributing to the home’s floor area ratio, a metric that prescribes how big or small a home can be on its site.

From the street, the home is a tidy, white stucco volume punctuated by large windows beneath a low-slung, standing-seam metal roof. From the roofline emerges a full dormer, hinting at its additional third-floor attic space. Set back behind a darkstained wood fence with narrowly offset slats, the front yard offers a degree of transparency while still affording privacy from the busy street.

Inside, a restrained esthetic of white walls and dark, polished concrete floors pop with bold instances of color and texture. The kitchen, which yields to an open living room, features deep violet cabinetry over white, dark-veined marble, the spaces bathed in daylight from floor-to-ceiling windows facing a verdant backyard. Outside, the ADU’s pitched roof and pink stucco walls anchor a visual connection with the main house, shaping space between for an intimate, private pool.

“My tastes are pretty neutral, but when I was picking out all the finishes, my back house ended up pink, my kitchen is purple, and the wallpaper is bold and graphic,” says Brittany. “I was surprised where we landed with the choices, but it’s warm and natural instead of sterile and sanitized.”

Those choices are complemented by J.C.’s sensitive placement of windows which work to bathe the home in light throughout the day, while also curating a variety of views into the neighborhood.

J.C. continues, “In the end, it was a neutral palette that best showed off moments where Brittany and Darryl’s personalities and expressiveness shine through. The rest was using form to shape light and create privacy.”

After fully moving into the main home in 2021, the couple looks forward to raising their family while enjoying the myriad of walkable amenities the Eastside has to offer.

Contact: merzbau.com jcschmeil@merzbau.com

4009 Bannister Ln., #250 512-636-5900

Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

The project team included local builder A.R. Lucas Construction with structural engineering services from Green Earth Engineering.

2023

THE BEST PROS in Central & East Austin

LET THESE RESIDENTIAL EXPERTS HELP YOU CREATE THE HOME OF YOUR DREAMS. WHETHER YOU'RE LOOKING FOR A LOCAL CONTRACTOR, REALTOR, INTERIOR DESIGNER, OR JUST LOOKING FOR THE LATEST IN HOME TRENDS AND REAL ESTATE ADVICE, THESE HOME EXPERTS ARE SOME OF THE BEST IN AUSTIN.