A 3D-Printed Glamping Retreat is Opening in Marfa, Texas

A beloved West Texas campground is getting a 21st-century makeover. 

El Cosmico, a bohemian hotel and campground in Marfa, is slated for innovative and unique renovations come 2024. Texas hospitality magnate Liz Lambert, along with Austin-based startup Icon and architecture firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), announced that a brand new glamping retreat will be the world’s first 3D printed hotel. 

The retreat will expand El Cosmico’s current 21 acres to over 62 acres complete with an infinity pool (plus cabanas), dome-shaped guest huts, an open-air spa, 3D printed homes, plus communal space for workshops and events. 

“Our collaboration with El Cosmico and Icon has allowed us to pursue the formal and material possibilities of cutting-edge 3-D-printed construction untethered by the traditional limitations of a conventional site or client,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder and Creative Director of BIG, in a news release. “Liz Lambert’s legacy for reimagining hospitality and her pioneering of a contemporary Texan aesthetic combined with the minimalistic nature and culture, art and landscape of Marfa has been the perfect fit to pursue a new architectural vernacular language for El Cosmico in Marfa.”

The design aims to echo the natural landscape, with local desert soil mixed into the concrete to construct the ultimate immersive property. 

El Cosmico in its current state is still open for bookings in teepees, tents, trailers and more.