UMaine and Penquis plan up to nine homes to scale BioHome production
A staged housing project will test whether bio-based printing can become a repeatable manufacturing process.
What happened
The University of Maine announced an expanded BioHome effort with nonprofit Penquis in August. The partners plan to produce up to nine homes in the Greater Bangor area, supported by $4 million in federal funding.
The homes are planned in three stages so researchers can apply lessons from each group to the next. Work will use the Factory of the Future within UMaine’s GEM facility to assess faster printing and more automated manufacturing.
The effort builds on the 2022 BioHome3D prototype, whose floors, walls and roof used wood-fiber and bio-resin materials. The announcement also identifies fire resistance and additional testing as part of moving beyond research. These are planned homes, not nine completed residences.
Read the sources
Primary-source reporting; this is not a hands-on review. Sources checked Oct 24, 2026.