BILLINGS — Tim Stark has been reimagining the way people think about construction for years and now his company, Bespoke of Montana, will soon begin 3D-printing a duplex on Sioux Lane in Billings Heights.
“It’s a cool opportunity for Montana to be at the forefront of something that’s going to dramatically change the industry. Not only here but across the nation,” Stark said. “We can’t keep doing what we’ve always done and expect different results, so we’re going to have to try something new.”
Stark is using a 3D printer to build homes faster. He and his company have been working on this plan for years, becoming the first to gain the state's approval to build a home with 3D walls in 2022. They now just need the printer to arrive from Dubai to get started.
“We’re trying to find out how we can build something that will last longer than these (previously built apartments) and perform better than what we’ve conventionally built in the past,” Stark said.
Bespoke of Montana was approached by HomeFront to build them the 3D home as a way to build homes more quickly. The home will be printed across the street from where man camps from Williston, North Dakota, and will be recycled and reused to create apartment buildings.
“I am a native Montanan and it always seems that Montana is a few years behind the rest of the country if not the world, and in this particular case, we’re actually at the forefront of it,” Shannon Johnson, Bespoke of Montana's director of operations, said. "We have really been spending a lot of hours making sure that we’ve got all of the pieces laid out exactly the way that we need to.”
Stark plans to start printing sometime this summer.
“I anticipate somebody would get to spend Christmas in here this year,” Stark said.
