Virginia family gets keys to Habitat for Humanity’s 1st 3D-printed home in US

By Sara Smart, CNN

(CNN) — One Virginia family received the keys to their new 3D-printed home in time for Christmas.

The home is Habitat for Humanity’s first 3D-printed home in the nation, according to a Habitat news release.

Janet V. Green, CEO of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg, told CNN it partnered with Alquist, a 3D printing company, earlier this year to begin the process.

The 1,200-square-foot home has three bedrooms and two full baths and was built from concrete.

The technology allowed the home to be built in just 12 hours, which saves about four weeks of construction time for a typical home.

April Stringfield purchased the home through the Habitat Homebuyer Program and is moving in with her 13-year-old son.

<p>Members of Habitat for Humanity, sponsors and building partners welcome April Stringfield and her son to their new home.</p>

Habitat for Humanity

Members of Habitat for Humanity, sponsors and building partners welcome April Stringfield and her son to their new home.

“My son and I are so thankful,” Stringfield said in a live feed streamed on Habitat’s Facebook page. “I always wanted to be a homeowner. It’s like a dream come true.”

To purchase the home, Stringfield logged hundreds of hours of sweat equity, one of the requirements for homebuyers through the program, Green told CNN.

“Every Habitat affiliate in the nation and worldwide sells homes to partner families who have low to moderate incomes,” Green said. “They must have and maintain good credit and be willing to partner with us.”

“I’m excited to make new memories in Williamsburg and especially in a house, a home,” Stringfield told CNN affiliate WTKR. “Some place I can call home and give my son that backyard that he can play in and also for my puppy to run around the yard.”

The concrete used in the house’s 3D construction has many long-term benefits, such as the ability to retain temperature and withstand natural disasters, like tornadoes and hurricanes.

Stringfield’s home also includes a personal 3D printer that will allow her to reprint anything she may need, everything from an “electrical outlet to trim to cabinet knobs,” Green told CNN.

While this is the first 3D home for Habitat for Humanity in the U.S., it certainly won’t be the last. Green told CNN it hopes to continue partnering and developing the technology used with the printing.

“We would love to build more with this technology, especially because it’s got that long-term savings for the homeowners,” Green said.

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