KSHB 41 reporter Olivia Acree covers portions of Johnson County, Kansas, including Olathe and Lenexa. Share your story idea with Olivia.
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3D-printed homes are a new type of housing development popping up across the country, and the first printed home in Kansas is in progress in Topeka.
I cover Johnson County, and the owner of the new home is Kansas Representative Mari-Lynn Poskin, who represents parts of Leawood and Overland Park. The idea came from Poskin wanting a home closer to work in Topeka, but now she sees it as part of the solution for affordable housing.
"I'm my husband's primary caregiver. He has secondary progressive MS," Poskin said. "We were looking at existing houses and what that would take to make them accessible. And when I looked at that, the math just wasn't mathing.”
She found Chris Stemler, founder of Trident Homes, and they began the blueprint for a 3D-printed home.
"Two bedrooms, 900 square feet, and we are coming in just under that 150 mark," Poskin said.
Stemler found that using technology instead of manpower helps build homes faster and for a lower cost.
"From here to keys in hand, call it 60 days," Stemler said. "Here in Topeka, we're finding that we're coming in $160 to $170 a square foot.”
Affordability and accessibility of homes is something many Kansans are struggling with. Data from the Mid-America Regional Council in 2023 identified a gap of 64,000 affordable rental units in the Kansas City region.
"When we see how efficient and effective this is, maybe we could work on some of that for future homeowners, especially our young Kansans, who I'd like to keep in the state," Poskin said.
This Topeka home is just the first.
"Our goal is to put these into municipalities like places like Montgomery County, Labette County, areas that are doing good economic development, helping bring jobs, or struggling to do so, because there's nowhere for those businesses to put their people," Stemler said.
Stemler expects to build somewhere between 25 and 50 before the end of the year.
"I started to get excited about the prospect of this being a part of a way to solve some of those housing issues," Stemler said.
Poskin even sees a future where 3D-printed homes start to pop up closer to the Kansas City metro, including places in my area of coverage like rural Johnson County.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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