Alquist 3D & the State of Colorado to Build a Foundation for 3D Printed Housing: Interview with CEO Zachary Mannheimer

“Colorado and the city of Greeley have really provided the right visionary group of leaders around us. Greeley wants to solve a big problem — infrastructure for affordable housing — and they’re not afraid to go all in with an emerging technology, which is exciting. And then, to me, this is the most exciting piece of this: thanks to the partnership with Aims Community College, the workforce development that’s going to be created because of this technology. This is how we get young people back into the trades. Aims is going to teach our curriculum on their campus and we have space on their campus for production.”

“Greeley, CO is becoming the epicenter of the 3D printing construction movement in America overnight. It’s the only place on the planet that’s going to have robots being assembled, new material being created, a showroom to demonstrate what a 3D printed home or wall is, actual 3D projects happening for housing and for infrastructure, and then the training program. In my opinion, if you want to get into 3D construction in the US, you’re going to have to come through Greeley at some point. If you’re interested in joining our franchise program, you’re going to come to Greeley for a day and a half and learn about it, see a robot in action, and understand the process. And then if you’re serious, you’ll come back for two weeks and be trained, and then we’ll get you a robot, we’ll come to where you are, and we’ll start working with you on the ground — then you take it from there.”

“This is not a scenario where you can buy a printer or get it out of the box and then boom, you have a home,” Mannheimer explained. “The industry is not there yet. One day, yes. On top of that, it’s taken us almost three years now to perfect this model… The good news is, we’ve only been 3D printing homes in America for five years, and we’re basically on par with stick-built costs. But if we want to commercialize the industry—most people are not as gung-ho as I am and it would have had to take almost six years and several million dollars to get where Alquist 3D is today—they will need to invest a much smaller amount of money and much less time. We want to create more companies; we want to be collaborative; and we want to commercialize the industry, which is what will be good for everybody involved. The only way to do that is to train people, and that’s why we have three partners right now so far that we work with, one in Florida, one in Texas, and one up in Canada. We have a pipeline of more groups that want to work with us. We’re just waiting to be all set up in Colorado.”

“I’m from rural America, so I’ve always cared deeply about it,” Mannheimer explained. “Then, also, in my opinion the workforce of tomorrow is going to come from rural America, not the big cities. And that’s largely due to all the migration patterns that are taking place right now, patterns which were already happening before COVID, but which the pandemic sped up by ten, maybe even twenty years. We’re obviously seeing that you can work from anywhere as long as you have a good broadband signal and an available home to live in, so people are relocating in every direction.”

“Not even close. But you know, they have to spread the money around, and it’s also very early on in the process. We’re very thankful for the incentives that Colorado and Greeley were able to come up with. Again, they’ve both been very innovative and forward thinking, which is very different from most communities around the country. But of course the more resources we have, the faster we can make this grow, and I do believe that will start happening. Every other week we’re in a meeting with officials at [the US Department of Housing and Urban Development] and [US Department of Agriculture], not to mention the military, which already has many applications going with 3D construction. I think in the next couple of years, you’re going to see a greater concentration of public dollars going towards this area of innovation. As an emerging industry we just need to be printing more homes and infrastructure, and training people and getting the word out there.”

“I mean, I would love it! At the same time, I don’t think that’s necessary for the movement to succeed. I think the industry is already organically taking shape, although we do need public agencies to step up and provide more dollars on both the R&D side and for housing. So, yes, if there was an Operation Warp Speed that would inspire thousands of people to get into this and so forth, it would be very beneficial. Do I think it’s going to happen? Unlikely. I do think we could see something similar happen at a city and state and municipality level.”

“We don’t value housing as a basic human need in the US,” Mannheimer assessed. “Other westernized countries do. Americans know it’s a basic human need, but we don’t put that value on it. I love capitalism, I think it’s a great system — to a point. And that point is housing, and medical services—those types of things. They can’t simply be left to the market because they’re basic human needs. In many parts of Europe, they value housing the same way they value food quality and education. They’re all part of the same principle that they’re things everyone needs in order to thrive. America doesn’t see housing or shelter as part of that, which is why we have a massive housing issue, which is why we spend billions of dollars trying to solve the problem and barely make a dent. If I was going to do an Operation Warp Speed, for instance, it wouldn’t be about 3D printed houses, it would be about housing in general, and 3D printed houses would be one aspect of that.”