The world's first 3D printed hotel will have a huge infinity pool, pods and safari tents and will be located in the middle of the desert - and bookings open this summer.
The El Cosmico campsite in Texas is currently is soon to undergo a drastic make-over to become the world's first 3D printed hotel.
ICON, which has a contract with NASA to construct buildings on other planets and celestial bodies, is to begin work on the current ‘nomadic’ hotel and campground site, where guests spend the night in trailers, tepees and safari tents.
The firm, along with architecture company BIG, will create about 100 structures that will lie across the desert.
They will be coloured like the sandy terrain around them to make it feel as if the pods are "literally erected from the site it stands on".
Fans of Star Wars may spot a passing resemblance to the sand igloo Luke Skywalker lives in in the first film, albeit mixed with the shape of a cooling tower.
The site has been designed to feel bohemian and appeal to "adventurers and wanderers", according to hotelier Liz Lambert.
The area plays hots to the Trans-Pecos Festival of Music and Love which is billed as an ‘intimate multi-day, multimedia festival of sensory delights, held underneath the vast Chihuahuan Desert sky’.
The expanded site promises to showcase “entirely new architectural approaches made possible by large-scale 3D-printing including domes, arches, vaults and parabolic forms”.
Some of the pods will have as many as four bedrooms and be constructed out of organic material.
They will all have spectacular views of the Davis Mountains and be centred around circular infinity pool.
“I have had a vision for the evolution of El Cosmico for many years that includes several spaces that add to the experience both for guests and locals – a pool, a hammam, and more space for art and skills-building workshops,” Ms Lambert said in a statement.
“In collaborating with the revolutionary thinkers at BIG and Icon, not only do I get to fulfil this dream, but we get to do it using this incredible 3D-printing technology that marries the oldest principles of raw earth-based building with a futuristic technology that works more quickly, sustainably, and efficiently than modern construction.”
Construction is expected to begin in 2024, with bookings to open this summer.
3D printing has a history that dates back to the 1980s, when simple digital structures were constructed line-by-line.
The medium has become increasingly complex and impressive in recent years, and can now be used to create intricate and complex machine parts as well as homes.
