Building Forward

Sal Verrastro has become an ardent student of the building envelope. It provides a fascinating paradox—even as material science and building technology evolve, the industry is seeing more building envelope failures as new techniques result in unintended consequences. As the principal at Spillman Farmer Architects studies these design challenges, he’s seeing one potential solution emerge in off-site construction. In this episode, Verrastro discusses how the role of the architect is changing in projects that involve off-site construction and prefabrication. Tune in to hear his take on how these construction methods are evolving alongside BIM and design technology to change the modern architectural practice.

For David Everson, there’s an important distinction between committing to a construction goal and committing to a path to get there. The CEO of Prescott, Ariz.–based Mandalay Homes says locking yourself into construction methods or practices creates handcuffs on innovation and takes away flexibility. And innovation is what it took for Mandalay to be recognized as a leader in home building innovation and, in particular, in energy-efficient construction. Tune in to hear Everson’s vision for Mandalay’s newest community designed around clean energy and how increasing the use of energy storage can benefit everyone from the consumer to the power utility to the environment.

When Patrick Hamill gives a speech, one of his favorite slides to show is of the framing of a house through the ages. The trick is that whether he’s showing a house from 50 years ago or from today, the only technological change is from a hammer to an air gun. The message is clear: For decades, housing has had very little disruption. But Oakwood Homes, the building company Hamill founded in 1991, has been a disruptive force in the industry, with a laser focus on affordability and providing great value for its customers. Tune in to hear Hamill’s vision for the state-of-the-art off-site construction factory and how he avoids the skilled labor shortage within his own company.

When Clark Ivory returned in the summer of 2017 from a three-year sabbatical for his church in Romania, he took a look at the housing market to figure out what was coming next. Ivory saw a number of factors working against builders’ ability to provide homes at prices that were affordable to much of the market. And he decided to do something about it. He enlisted some of the brightest minds in housing in an advisory group to create the Ivory Prize for Housing Affordability, a search for innovative ideas that would address the complex challenge of housing affordability. Tune in to hear what Ivory learned about the overlapping solutions to today’s most pressing housing challenges.

CR Herro got to make up his own job title. As vice president of innovation at Meritage Homes, the seventh largest home builder in the United States, Herro’s role is to serve as an internal disrupter, helping to reimagine the best home Meritage could build if it was starting from a blank slate, without decades or centuries of preconceptions about construction. By taking that viewpoint, Herro has learned that the gap between what the industry does and what it could be is massive. Tune in to hear more about how Meritage’s approach was influenced by construction best practices both at home and in Germany, Japan, and France.

Michael Dickens is the co-founder of IBACOS, an organization he helped create to bring innovation to American home building. In the more than 25 years that IBACOS has been around, it’s been a driving force in energy efficiency, productivity, and quality in the construction industry, working with some of the largest production builders in the country to help them set standards for the way they build their homes. Today, Dickens says, one of the most important issues the industry faces is affordability. Tune in to hear more of Dickens’ thoughts on how builders can begin to change the way they think—from buying and acquiring land to how homes are designed to the way they train their workforce—to create added value and performance at a price the consumer can pay.

Steve Glenn is CEO of Plant Prefab, a Rialto, Calif.-based builder of high-quality, sustainable, prefabricated single-family and multifamily homes. The company made a splash last year when Amazon announced it had invested in the company through its Alexa Fund, the company’s first investment in home construction. Plant Prefab’s niche is in the custom urban market, which in the past has predominantly been served only by small, local general contractors. Glenn sees an opportunity to build these small urban projects faster, less expensively, and with higher quality using modular techniques. Tune in to hear more of Glenn’s thoughts on why modular construction offers an opportunity to build projects as much as 25% less expensively than site-built homes and why Plant Prefab is developing a new panel to work alongside its prefabricated modules.

Dason Whitsett is principal architect at Kasita, a modern builder of prefabricated micro-homes. His belief is that buildings should enhance life for both the individual and for the environment and that everybody should have access to a great, well-designed space. By building its homes in a factory environment, the company can use manufacturing efficiencies to produce a high-quality building for a cost that is comparable to site-built construction. Tune in to hear more of Whitsett’s thoughts on how builders can help to make their homes flexible enough to adapt as technology changes and about how Kasita approaches the challenges of adapting to zoning laws in different communities.

Zenon Radewych, a principal with WZMH Architects, has led the charge in his firm’s work on prefabrication and other new and emerging technologies. He’s always been inspired by thinking about how his firm can deliver products differently. And in an industry that hasn’t seen a lot of innovation, he sees an opportunity to take advantage of technology to take construction from being at the bottom of the innovation ladder to the top. Tune in to hear more about Radewych’s recent work with Microsoft to explore how the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence can be combined to make a truly smart building.

Housing affordability is one of the building industry’s most important challenges. That made it a perfect topic for Kent Colton to study. The former CEO of the National Association of Home Builders has more than 30 years of experience as a housing scholar and expert in the field of mortgage finance and housing policy. In his recent research, Colton found that the cost of labor, the cost of materials, and regulatory barriers have become the foremost issues coming together to create the housing affordability challenge. Tune in to hear how Colton believes the building industry can come together to address these challenges and how construction technologies that cut across architecture, design, and building might offer solutions.

Kurt Goodjohn is looking to change the conventional perception of modular housing as a “lowest common denominator” construction method. After nine years of experience in modular construction, Goodjohn founded Dvele, a builder of high-quality, ultra-energy efficient healthy homes in a factory environment. Goodjohn hopes to change the traditional mindset about modular with beautifully designed modular homes that incorporate renewable energy and achieve extremely high efficiency levels. Tune in to learn more about how Goodjohn’s years of background in modular housing influenced Dvele’s current approach, and how he sees digitization and automation influencing the company’s future.

Urban revitalization strategist and real estate developer Majora Carter has been focusing over the past five years on how to use real estate development as a transformational tool to change the way land is used, in particular, in low-status American communities. Rather than the development models that have typically affected these communities in the past—either gentrification or development that concentrates poverty—Carter is exploring more strategic mixed-income development to drive economic growth. Tune in to learn more about how this model might transform development in these communities, and the role that more productive construction will play in supporting their growth.