A man rides a bicycle cart full of snacks down the street of Nacajuca, Mexico in the opening scene of the finale episode of "Home" on Apple TV+, which premiered Friday.
He tells the camera in Spanish that he wants to provide a home for his family, but he never imagined he'd be able to afford it. Until now.
"It feels like that dream could come true," he says.
And, later on in the episode, it does come true. And he's not alone. Austin 3D printed homes startup ICON has built eight of its 500-square-foot homes in that community in Tabasco, Mexico. It plans to eventually have 50 there.
The new episode of "Home" takes a deep dive into the stories of the families in Mexico, as well as focusing on ICON co-founders Jason Ballard and Alex Le Roux and New Story, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps build homes in impoverished communities around the world.
Ballard shares some of the behind-the-scenes drama that has unfolded as ICON built its first community of houses in Mexico -- exploding hoses, jammed up pumps and the pains of getting their proprietary cement-like material to work in all kinds of climates.
“There were times that it felt impossible," he said in the episode.
The docuseries explores the software and science behind ICON's 3D printed homes without going too deeply into the tech. Instead, it focuses on the human stories of the ICON team, New Story and the families in Mexico.
“Bringing a promising and new technology to a very small place like this, what I hope will be gleaned from this is that we should be and we can make difficult things work in very difficult places," Alexandria Lafci, co-founder COO of New Story, said in the episode. "Because I have to believe we are going to reach a future where everyone in the world has a home.”
The ICON team watched the episode on a video conference call Thursday evening. Since the filming wrapped up in 2019, the team completed the 3D printing of the wall systems for the first row of eight homes. The company says it's looking forward to continuing the project, and it's currently hiring for about 15 open positions.
ICON's episode is one of nine episodes on the new show, which is led by executive producer Matthew Weaver, known for "Chef's Table," "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and "Rock of Ages," and others known for their work on "The Defiant Ones," "A Year in Space," and "Valentino: The Last Emperor." The show was part of the 2020 SXSW Film Festival lineup, as well.
Others episodes explore projects in China, Chicago, Bali, India, Malibu, Maine and one right here that features the earthy East Austin home of local sci-fi writer and attorney Chris Brown.
In the Chris Brown episode, the filmmakers show how Brown and a team of designers and architects built his home into the landscape in East Austin, with nods to the industrial pollution left behind in the area and Austin's natural landscape.
