Happy Nice Mall

Katerra’s all-encompassing vision of reforming the construction world by using billions of dollars in investment to build an entirely new production system from the ground up exposed the stereotypical Silicon Valley arrogance. It also had very little of the influence of European models that tried to strengthen it using a simple, straightforward and standard set of parts.

According to Gerard McCaughey, serial entrepreneur and Irish pioneer of off-site construction, the founder of Century Homes, the company shared a common blind spot with many American technologists: it ignored innovation that was pioneering overseas. While American construction opted for wood-frame construction with readily available on-site raw materials—think of a Ford pickup truck that pulled too much by twos—builders in Asia and Europe with greater space and material constraints perfected prefabricated and modular techniques. Katerra ignored these examples of gradually building expertise, focusing on specific industries one at a time. Instead, he tried to reinvent the wheel, bringing every aspect of the complex construction process in-house and building too many different models at once, resulting in huge cost overruns.

“It’s not what you know or what you don’t know that gets you,” McCaughey says, speaking to Katerra leaders. “There were certain things you had to do, but [they were wrong]. Off-site is not a one-trick pony. You have to crawl before you can walk. The least experienced man in my company knew more about off-site construction than his senior leadership.”

MEREDITH MİOTKE

Powering thousands of homes in the Netherlands and Europe, the Energiesprong model is based on Stroomversnelling (its name means “rapid acceleration”), a network where contractors, housing associations, parts suppliers and even financiers work in close contact. A level of coordination that even Katerra’s expanding system can’t match. Currently, the Energiesprong system can rebuild a building in about 10 days. Other startups and construction companies offer free upgrades: Dutch factory Factory Zero, for example, makes prebuilt modules for roofs that boast electric boilers, heat pumps and solar connections. Greening an old building is almost plug and play.

It is part of a larger European model that started with an ambitious emissions policy and supported it with incentives and funds for retrofits and new buildings through programs like Horizon Europe, essentially subsidizing new building methods and creating a market for innovative windows, doors and HVAC. systems. A key component of its success has been the willingness of governments to fund such upgrades for subsidized and public housing, typically post-war towers and townhouses in desperate need of improvement. But there are other important advantages in Europe: building codes are much more standardized across countries and the continent as a whole, including some progressive regulations. passive house standard, an ultra-efficient level of insulation and ventilation that significantly reduces the energy required for heating and cooling. The entire housing ecosystem has been made smaller and more standardized, making it easier to support more experiments. Energiesprong uses a single building model, a handful of contractors, and a relatively small pool of players in a small space.

Coordination will be exponentially more difficult in a single US city, let alone the entire nation. “Europe is taking a shotgun approach and funding multiple programs,” says Michael Eliason, Seattle-based sustainable building expert and founder of Larch Lab, a design studio and think tank. Rather than concentrating venture capital on a handful of single-minded hyper-growth ventures, it is an approach that spreads risk across different ideas. “The US is finally becoming some kind of sniper rifle,” he says. “Katerra is failing and impacting the entire prefab construction industry.”

A model developing in Canada aims to copy the model of Europe. CityHousing Hamilton, the municipal housing authority for the city of Ontario, has recently used national housing funds for a complete refurbishment of a waterfront high-rise Ken Soble Tower for seniors, which was built in 1967 and has fallen into disrepair. The project, which included panelized siding, new high-efficiency windows, electrification of heating and gas stoves, brought the building into the living space. passive house standard; With a 94% reduction in energy use thanks to extreme efficiency, the total energy required to cool and heat a unit is equivalent to three incandescent light bulbs. Elegant new bay windows with seating, expansive views and daylight show that there is no aesthetic price to pay.

Graeme Stewart of ERA Architects, who led the project and studied hundreds of similar mid-century tall buildings across the country, suggests that the project employs Canadian firms that manufacture high-tech windows and cladding, and such work can help seed a domestic industry. greener building projects. He even spearheaded the creation of the Tower Renewal Partnership, an organization dedicated to making similar improvements across Canada. But despite all the benefits they see for tower residents — better air quality, infection control, mental health and cognitive function, and “views you can’t see on social media,” says Sean Botham, director of development at CityHousing Hamilton. housing”—the agency is unlikely to pay a cost premium of 8% to upgrade other buildings in its portfolio without further funding.