BANGOR, Maine — Finding housing in Maine is not an easy task, but there's a new approach in the works to help the housing crisis.
UMaine, MaineHousing, and Penquis are partnering to build a 3D-printed neighborhood. The pilot neighborhood will consist of nine 600-square-foot homes intended to house people experiencing homelessness.
UMaine unveiled the first 3D-printed home made out of entirely recyclable materials in November 2022 as the first step in this larger project. It's a technology they're calling BioHome3D.
"This innovative approach will allow for us to build less expensively and a lot faster. We're talking maybe two to three days ready to go for occupancy versus what would be six to eight months using existing labor and existing technologies," Jason Bird, Penquis's housing development director, said.
Bird said BioHome3D could be a new solution to the housing crisis in Maine as well as around the country. Maine is in need of about 50,000 housing units, according to Bird.
"I think the sky's the limit when it comes to this technology because as the university [is] already thinking about 'What is the next application?', and that could be printing modules that go into high-rise buildings and doing that a lot faster," Bird said. "Right now, it takes us somewhere [between] eight to 18 months to build 30 to 40 units of housing in one contiguous building. But this technology in a couple of years could cut that down to a matter of weeks."
The nine homes will be built in phases over four years at UMaine. It will take place in a new building the university has yet to begin construction on called the Factory of the Future laboratory.
Project leaders have not finalized a location for the neighborhood, but it will be somewhere in Bangor due to the city's growing needs, according to Bird.