Scheduled to be built over the next 10 months, the three 3D-printed concrete barracks will each be more than 5,700 square feet each, making them the largest 3D-printed structures yet built on the continent.

That title was previously held by the Texas Military Department, which had additive manufacturing company ICON build 3,800 square foot, 72-bunk barracks in 2021.

The barracks are being made out of Lavacrete, ICON’s own proprietary building material blend. According to the company, the compressive strength of its high-strength concrete is between 2,000 and 3,500 PSI.

“Constructing facilities using this cutting-edge technology saves labour costs, reduces planning time, and increases the speed of construction of future facilities. We are looking at other ways to use this innovative technique for rapid construction of other types of facilities beyond barracks,” said Lt Gen Doug Gabram, commander of the US Army Installation Management Command.

The construction itself is done by ICON’s Vulcan 3D printer, a 46-foot wide, 15-foot tall robot that can print between 5 and 10 inches of concrete a second. Vulcan is controlled via a smartphone/tablet app, and only mixes concrete as needed, reducing waste and saving on construction costs.

“Currently there is a multi-billion dollar backlog of housing and this impacts those serving our country,” said Brendan O’Donoghue, VP of Public Sector at ICON. “We are proud to collaborate with the U.S. Army and continue our partnership with DIU to see diverse use cases for ICON’s technology and to deliver resilient, comfortable 3D-printed barracks for soldiers at Ft. Bliss.”