Horizon Legacy Group, the noted real estate and renewable energy firm, has released its plans for developing the first and largest 3D printed neighborhood in Canada. This is a part of its Marco Polo 100 challenge and the company has announced $10 million in funding for R&D linked to advanced approaches towards development and technologies that will enable housing development at only $100 per square foot. Having chosen finalists of its contest, the Group is now giving them the task of proving scalability for their ideas. This final stage may witness six new family homes being 3D printed into a prime location, i.e. a beautiful waterfront neighborhood within Ontario.

The Horizon Legacy Group has tweaked its approach towards emphasizing more upon construction technologies and green energy. The company has started developing solar, water and wind power generating capabilities while finding new approaches towards creating eco-friendly and more sustainable real estate. The construction sector is not progressing rapidly in this space as per the Group with most firms using technologies that are centuries old. The Group thus came up with the Marco Polo 100 challenge. This was officially opened in October, 2020, for start-ups, designers and industry professionals.

The first phase garnered robotics and 3D printing focused entries from a whopping 400+ participants in 60 nations. A 12 member jury with expertise in engineering, 3D printing and construction decided on the winners and there are now only 6 finalists who will be going through the preliminary trials throughout 2022. Teams had to provide work plans that encompassed predicted schedules and costs for building smaller prototypes and a more extensive multistoried project at Ontario. Submissions were assessed by a specialized housing code consultant and entries were marked on the basis of cost, time and compliance along with aesthetics, creativity and scalability. Only 10 went through to the due diligence and validation processes and after inspections and follow-up questioning, 6 finalists were chosen only a month earlier.

Scoolpt from the Czech Republic, Canada’s O-Cube, the USA’s Hivetat and CyBe from the Netherlands were major winners along with UBB Chile from Chile and Imprimere from Switzerland. Details of all these entries have now been published prior to the finale of the contest. This has been done through several profile videos that unearth varying approaches and backgrounds towards the designs of the teams. CyBe has a chequered construction 3D printing legacy while Scoolpt has several artists and designers with a vision towards building sculpture that can be entered. O-Cube is a fully modular system of construction. All 6 finalists will be working architects from Canada with regard to finalizing all these designs, sanction local permits for building and building smaller prototypes. The final structures will then be further filtered to a single build. However, the Horizon Legacy Group remains open towards all six designs seeing the light of day.

Once local approvals are garnered, the designs will enter into the final construction phase from August next year. This will be done at Gananoque, a smaller rural area of 5,000 people.