PRINTING AFFORABLE HOUSING

   
PRINTING AFFORDABLE HOUSING 

CHRIS THOMPSON
VIRGINA HOUSING
DIrector of Strategic Planning

Our September speaker is going to tell us about a printer big enough to help build a house — and why that technology may become an important part of addressing one of the biggest challenges facing communities today: the need for affordable housing. Chris will tell us how printing a house really works and where this technology may take us next.

Chris Thompson, Director of Strategic Housing at Virginia Housing, was instrumental in developing Virginia’s first 3D-printed home for residential sale — a 1,500-square-foot, three-bedroom home in South Richmond. The project became a real-world laboratory for learning whether this technology can make home construction faster, less expensive and more efficient.

Working with Virginia Tech and several community partners, Virginia Housing helped fund and oversee the project. The partners are continuing to test 3D printing and other new construction methods around the Commonwealth, looking at what works, what doesn’t, and whether these technologies can be scaled to make a meaningful difference in affordable housing.