Published Aug. 27, 2024. Updated Feb. 24.
Prof. Jason Van Nest is the Executive Director of the New York Tech Center for Offsite Construction.
The Center is a nonprofit focused on open-source standards for U.S. offsite construction.
Van Nest started in the industry after graduate school by helping New York architects use new digital tools.
He later consulted for architecture firms, systematized repeating design elements, and moved deeper into modular construction.
He saw that on-site building methods could slow strong digital solutions for repetitive housing designs.
That led him to support industrial construction as a way to streamline production.
The Center says traditional lending is calibrated to on-site construction and does not fit modular projects well.
A research project at the Center publishes papers on lending products that better match offsite construction.
The work focuses on loan methods that assess risk and help finance scale with construction.
Van Nest’s startup is Logic Building Systems.
Logic commercializes research behind the open-source standard.
It first creates couplings that match the connectivity standard.
It then offers pre-designed kitchen, bathroom, and utility room pods that fit those couplings.
The company describes this as interoperability across projects.
The article says offsite construction could grow if processes are standardized and collaboration improves.
The Center connects this work to America’s affordable housing crisis.
The New York Tech Center for Offsite Construction is seeking advisory members and partners.