In a groundbreaking development for the hotel industry, construction has officially started on the world’s first 3D-printed hotel, “El Cosmico,” located on desert land north of Marfa, Texas.
This innovative project aims to transform the vast Texas desert into a unique destination, featuring 43 new hotel rooms and 18 residential homes.
The construction site, devoid of traditional cranes and scaffolding, showcases a massive 3D printer known as “The Vulcan,” which measures an impressive 46.5 feet wide and 15.5 feet tall. Designed by the Texas-based company ICON, this state-of-the-art printer layers a sand-colored material to create curved walls that mimic the natural contours of the desert.
Liz Lambert, the owner of El Cosmico, describes the printer’s operation as reminiscent of an inkjet printer, with a moving cartridge laying down layers of material.
The collaborative effort in Marfa also includes architects from the Bjarke Ingels Group, bringing in innovative architectural designs along with the hotel’s arches and domes. The current model of the El Cosmico Hotel showcases an earth-toned aesthetic, with cream-colored rounded walls and wood accents. The hotel will offer rooms ranging from $200 to $450 per night, while the residential homes willl be priced starting at over $2.29 million, according to a report from The Smithsonian Magazine.
“Our collaboration with El Cosmico and ICON has allowed us to pursue the formal and material possibilities of cutting edge 3D-printed construction untethered by the traditional limitations of a conventional site or client,” Founder & Creative Director of BIG, Bjarke Ingels said.
The walls of these structures will be made from “lavacrete,” a proprietary low-carbon concrete developed by ICON, designed for strength and durability in the Texas desert. This material utilizes local resources and its color was designed to blend in with Marfa’s environment, according to ICON.
Since its founding in 2018, ICON has completed a variety of notable 3D printing construction projects, having previously built homes in both Texas and Mexico. The company is also now undertaking a bigger project in Georgetown, Texas, where they are constructing 100 new houses.
The first prototype of a 3D-printed house was finished in 2021, taking 200 hours to print and finish, as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
Beyond terrestrial projects, ICON is also exploring potential applications for 3D printing in space. They recently created Mars Dune Alpha, a habitat simulating conditions on Mars, and are a collaborative partner in NASA’s Project Olympus, which constructs different “lunar structures.”
“It’s fitting that ICON has a contract with NASA to build the first dwellings on the moon and on Mars. I’m excited that we get to explore their incredible work right here in our own little cosmic landscape under the stars in far West Texas,” Lambert said.
According to The Smithsonian Magazine, construction of the new El Cosmico Hotel in Marfa is projected to finish by 2026.