Support Us Button Widget

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.

More from ATXtoday
These mansions are on the market right now, so you can dare to dream about living in some of Austin’s nicest homes.
Got a hot new fling? Hoping to spice things up with your longtime partner? We’re here to help plan your next date in the Capital City.
Whether or not you have tickets to the upcoming I-35 Series games, the San Antonio Spurs are inviting Austinites to get in on the action during Spurs Week.
Whether you’re looking for omakase, sake pairings, a sushi conveyor belt, a whimsical interior, or an “Ahi Tower,” we’ve got the restaurant for you.
The historic Huston-Tillotson University has produced dozens of notable alumni who have shaped the Austin folks know today.
Chef-owner Amir Hajimaleki has been honing the concept through local pop-ups since 2018 with plans to showcase the Persian “art of hospitality.”
As you watch the 2026 Super Bowl, keep watch for a few familiar, local faces that will make a cameo during the commercials.
Cheer on Team USA at this year’s Winter Olympics in Milan, where four talented Texans will compete for the gold.
The annual Great Backyard Bird Count attracts more than one million people nationwide to help record the bird population.
The company will drop 350 new memberships with the opening of its second workspace, a former auto repair shop, in March.