ICON, 3D house printing company, to lay off over 100 workers in March

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Photo courtesy: ICON

AUSTIN, Texas - ICON Technology Inc, the company building 3D-printed homes in places like Georgetown and East Austin, will be laying off over 100 workers later this spring.

According to filings with the Texas Workforce Commission, ICON filed a WARN notice on Jan. 7, saying they plan to lay off 114 workers on March 8. 

A WARN notice is a 60-day advance notice businesses and employers are required to provide to employees in advance of plant closures or mass layoffs, in accordance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

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In a statement to FOX 7 Austin, an ICON spokesperson says that the layoffs are to "re-align our team and team size to focus on our highest priorities."

The full statement reads:

"We recently made a difficult decision to re-align our team and team size to focus on our highest priorities and continue to invest in our best growth opportunities. 

"Our priority is to accelerate the development of Phoenix, our line of multi-story 3D printers and begin putting the robotic technology into the hands of builders.

"While our mission remains to develop these intelligent machines to build humanity’s future, we will continue to design and build a selection of key projects across residential, hospitality, social/affordable and those within the Department of Defense with a more streamlined team."

What is ICON Technology Inc?

ICON is best known for 3D printing homes through layers of a proprietary concrete-like substance it calls "lavacrete," a material that has great thermal properties that can be used to help increase efficiency in homes. 

ICON staff previously told FOX 7 Austin that the material also helps make homes more resilient and capable of withstanding fire, floods, and other natural disasters better than traditionally built homes.

The company debuted their first permitted 3D printed home at SXSW 2018. The home was printed in under 48 hours for about $10,000. The following year, ICON hosted then-HUD secretary Dr. Ben Carson, giving him a tour of that prototype home in East Austin.

In 2021, ICON partnered with Kansas City developer 3Strands on 3D-printed homes in the East 17th Street Residences. The homes were the first of their kind in the U.S.

The East 17th Street Residences had four homes and they ranged in size from about 1,000-square feet to 2,000-square feet. All the homes were printed in less than a week.

Later that same year, ICON announced it would be teaming up with Lennar Homes to develop the first 3D printed subdivision. That neighborhood would become Wolf Ranch Genesis in Georgetown in 2023.

Last year, ICON announced a new multi-story 3D printer, for faster, more sustainable ways to build at scale.

ICON has also built low-income units in Austin's Community First Village and at a site in Mexico and military living quarters at Camp Swift and, as of 2021, had a contract with NASA to build out-of-this-world habitats.