ICON’s Initiative 99 wants you to design its next project for under $99,000

Do you have what it takes to create the most innovative affordable home?

An organic-looking 3D-printed home that is fully furnished.

ICON’s designs often involve walls with fluid movement, and a lack of right angles.

Photo by ICON

ICON, Austin-based 3D-printing construction company, is calling on you to design its next housing project, but there’s a catch: it has to be built for $99,000 or less.

Called Initiative 99, registration for the contest will open to all architects — including students, firms, and individuals — this summer. The year-long competition has several phases, potential for multiple winning designs, and $1 million in prize money on the line.

A kitchen with a 3D-printed island and barstrools.

CEO Jason Ballard said he hopes this concept shifts the idea of affordable housing.

Photo by ICON

This isn’t ICON’s first foray into the affordable housing sphere — in 2019, ICON gifted a batch of homes in Nacajuca, Mexico to families living in poverty. A little closer to home, ICON has been working on building homes for Community First! Village since 2020.

ICON CEO Jason Ballard said the rubric will include taking “beauty, aesthetics, comfort, sustainability, and resiliency” into account. Once designs are in, a panel of architectural practitioners — including several Austinites — will weigh in.

Learn more and get designing.

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