Can a 3D-Printed Hotel and Residences Bring a New Dimension to Marfa?

With a resident population of just under 2,000, Marfa is a tiny town with an outsized reputation as an unusual art mecca in rural West Texas. And, although it’s about 60 miles from Interstate 10 and nearly 200 more to a major airport, Marfa—with its massive modern art installations, vibrant, quirky culture, sparse landscapes and dark skies—has been luring visitors and newcomers from far beyond the high desert plains for decades.

Now, a 62-acre site here may become host to an innovative development project involving 3D-printed buildings. Often touted as a revolutionary game-changer that builds faster, cheaper, and more sustainably than conventional methods, 3D-print construction features large-scale printers and robotics to automate much of the building process, producing walls in layers of excretable concrete.

The endeavor involves a trio of giants in their respective fields, beginning with native daughter and hospitality industry magnate Liz Lambert.

"A hotel is a good place to let people try new things," says Lambert, who grew up in Odessa and spent much of her formative years on a family ranch near Marfa. "So, this would enable people to experience staying in, or even buying, amazingly designed 3D-printed lodgings."

Lambert is talking about El Cosmico, billed as a "Bohemian West Texas nomadic hotel," replete with trailers, yurts, and teepees, workshop areas and a performance venue, all set on a 21-acre pasture she bought back in 2005. It’s been what she calls "an experiment to create a place for folks to disconnect, see the stars, and feel the vast sense of space."

Her plan is to relocate El Cosmico to a nearby site three times the size—and double the number of existing units to 120 sleeping accommodations, many in 3D-printed structures. Also planned are 3D-printed houses for sale, ranging between 1,200- and 2,200-square-feet. These proposed two- to four-bedroom "Sunday homes"—a nod to ranching culture when cowboys could enjoy a dignified reprieve on weekends after long weeks working the range—are targeted for a variety of buyer types around the country. A lobby, small restaurant, new workshop spaces, and new stage are also planned for printing.

Significantly, too, Lambert says she hopes to produce affordable housing on the original El Cosmico site; and that her team will assess the opportunity to 3D-print such housing in Marfa as well to serve the town’s evolving needs.

To help realize her vision, Lambert has partnered with global architecture firm BIG and Austin-based Icon, a major player in the rapidly growing 3D-print building world.

"I often say the shortest path from imagination to reality is via 3D printing," says Icon CEO Jason Ballard. "With El Cosmico, the technology was there, but because the designs are so unique, the project required us to stretch our capacities, which is enabling us to show what is possible."

The "stretch" is in no small part due to Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG who’s good at staying busy, and whose designs for El Cosmico are in keeping with its theme of otherworldliness.

"Our collaboration allowed us to pursue the possibilities of cutting-edge 3D-printed construction untethered by the traditional limitations of a conventional site or client and to pursue a new architectural vernacular," Ingels said in an email. "Organic shapes, Euclidian circular geometries and a color palette born from the local terroir make El Cosmico feel as if literally erected from the site it stands on."

Yes, the renderings are stunning. Reality, the collaborators hope, will bear them out by the end of 2024.