Spiritual Forum

Buying a home usually involves saving every penny earned towards a down payment followed by paying a huge mortgage each month for many years.

However, families in El Salvador may soon be able to move into a new home within 24 hours, and the entire home costs less than the average down payment on a home.

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New Story Is Raising $1 Million to Build Homes for Families in El Salvador

New Story is a non-profit organization who wants to raise $1 million to build a community of 3D Printed homes. The organization wants to build over 100 homes for families who have suffered and lost their homes due to natural disasters, all within the next two years. The co-founder and CEO of New Story said, "We want to bring this to the families who need it the most."

Each home has a price tag of $4,000 to build, and the company is already at work on technology. They have shown off their first 3D printed home at a festival in Austin. The 3D printed home offers three rooms, one being the main living room, another a bedroom and a bedroom that is smaller, which could be used as a study and a bathroom.

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3D Printer Uses Concrete Instead of Plastic

The house is relatively small as homes go, but it offers all the comforts of a home, and it costs less than the down payment on the typical family home. A huge 3D printer uses concrete instead of plastic to print out the house in the mixture, which then hardens. Once it has hardened the company behind it, claim it is sturdier than a typical home constructed from concrete.

The first ever 3D printed home in Austin is a collaboration between ICON, a robotics construction company from Austin and New Story. They worked together to design along with building a 3D printer with the name of "Vulcan".

The company said that while the 3D printed homes are aimed at people who have lost everything in disasters, the homes might also be used as an Airbnb or even an office. With advancements in robotics, it is thought eventually the homes will be built within a timeframe of 12 to 24 hours.

The El Salvador Project Is the Biggest To Date from New Story and ICON

New Story, along with partners ICON, is currently raising money with half of the funds raised going to the project in El Salvador into research, the development of the homes along with the transportation of the software and Vulcan 3D printer needed to build the homes. The El Salvador project is the biggest venture to date. However, this is not the first time that New Story has been involved in offering affordable housing to those in need.

In the past, the company has partnered up with non-profits locally in regions including Mexico, Bolivia, El Salvador, and Haiti since December 2014 where they have built over 850 homes. However, homes built in the past by the company were constructed using concrete blocks, along with tin for a roof, costing just over $6,000 and it took 15 days to build each home. Thanks to the 3D printing technology the company expects the costs along with services to be reduced with the homes coming in at $4,000 each.