Alquist (www.alquist3d.com), a 3D printed home construction company and Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg are partnering to build a 3D home in Williamsburg, Virginia. This project marks Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D printed home on the East Coast, following in the steps of a house build that began in Tempe, Arizona, in the spring of 2021. 

This 3D home will be approximately 1,200 sq. ft., with three bedrooms and two full bathrooms. Every new home built by Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg is EarthCraft certified. EarthCraft is a voluntary green building program that serves as a blueprint for healthy, comfortable homes and works to both reduce utility bills and minimize environmental impacts.

“As we continue our mission to build more affordable homes for the communities that need them most, Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg is the perfect partner bringing our shared vision to life,” said Zachary Mannheimer, Founder and CEO of Alquist. “Using 3D printing allows us to speed up the construction of a home while also lowering building costs, solving two housing challenges at once: the rising price of new homes and the speed at which they’re built.”

Construction of each home built by Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg is a cooperative effort between volunteers, house sponsors, and the home’s buyers. Participating families provide at least 300 hours of work toward building their own and other families’ homes, called sweat equity.

Once completed, this home will be sold to April and her family of two. Although April has worked at a local hotel for almost five years supervising the laundry facilities, her income is still less than 80% of the area median income, which has made it difficult to save enough to become a homeowner.  

“Going forward, her monthly mortgage payments will be no more than 30 percent of her income, including her real estate taxes and homeowner’s insurance,” said Janet V. Green, CEO for Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg. “Once the house construction is complete, she will close on her new home with a local attorney and repay her no-interest mortgage to us here at the local Habitat, illustrating Habitat for Humanity’s objective to give families a hand up rather than a hand out.”  

Each Alquist home comes equipped with Virginia Tech’s proprietary Raspberry Pi-based monitoring system, which monitors the indoor environment, provides security and emergency management, optimizes energy consumption, and analyzes occupant comfort and space use. Alquist’s future projects include 3D printed homes in rural communities in Arkansas, California, Iowa, North Carolina, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, and others. RB


Subscriptions to Rural Builder magazine are free to anyone in construction-related trades. No strings, no catches. Sign up today for your free magazine subscriptions.