Mighty Buildings
Mighty Buildings announces affordable housing project
Mighty Buildings, a company focused on using 3D printing for construction, together with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Habitat for Humanity, has announced a 5 million USD grant to develop sustainable and affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The GFO-22-305 grant comes from the California Energy Commission and is intended to enable the development, testing and demonstration of zero-carbon or near-zero-carbon, cost-effective, modular homes that can be readily deployed. Specifically, the project will see the construction of three prefabricated low-carbon townhouses in Bay Point, California, which will benefit low-income families via partner Habitat for Humanity. Mighty Buildings’ 3D printing technology, which combines it's proprietary stone-like LUMUS 3D printing material, robotics, and automation, will be used to build the structures at its Oakland factory, while assembly will take place on site. The homes are expected to be built much faster than traditional construction methods, which the partners believe could result in the construction of 20-30% more housing units.
"We are thrilled to embark on this groundbreaking project. Our collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Habitat for Humanity reflects our commitment to innovation, sustainability, and our community," said Scott Gebicke, CEO of Mighty Buildings. "The support provided by this grant goes beyond building three townhomes; it's actively shaping the future of construction in California. We envision a future where affordable, resilient, and energy-efficient homes are the standard, not an exception.”
The project aims to explore a number of possibilities including off-site 3D printing techniques, including new energy-efficient panels, which are expected to have the highest level of offsite completion in the industry to date. It will also provide the first steps for a new energy and general manufacturing cost model developed by LBNL which could be applied towards future projects utilising prefab, modular and panellised industry solutions.
Onsite structural/waterproofing test kits will be introduced to the manufacturing site to drive down certification cycle times, while Habitat for Humanity will create a training program to upskill and teach the basics of panellised prefab construction.
They’re also testing a “cool room” concept which will see solar PV paired with a small battery, in tandem with an efficient envelope design and equipment, to deliver a high-efficiency, mini-split heat pump system. The “cool rooms” will reduce peak loads by shifting to low-power operation during times of acute grid stress, and by shifting the peak load from a concentrated single peak period in the evening to multiple scattered peak periods throughout the day. The aim is to provide greater resilience during power outages and extreme temperature events while generating more consistent billing cycles and a 10-year lower total cost of ownership.
The homes will target a 25% reduction in costs against a similarly sized home based on zero-carbon and near zero-carbon footprints over a ten-year period. The partners anticipate that these savings will grow to as much as 35% when scaled on larger projects. For home operations, the total utility savings is estimated to be as much as 40%, with even greater savings expected for larger multi-family units due to scale.
Mighty Buildings has set itself a goal of producing fully carbon-neutral houses by 2028, which it says puts it 22 years ahead of the construction industry's estimates. It's pre-built, factory-made 3D printed panels can be customised depending on the project, and are designed to more than half construction times compared to traditional techniques. In its most recent funding round in September, the company announced the completion of a 52 million USD round led by Wa’ed Ventures, bringing its total funding raised since its founding in 2017 to 150 million USD.
