Robotically built homes going up faster and with less expense than traditional construction

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Buying a home has never been tougher.

Prices are at record highs, and mortgage rates are rising.

A big problem is the chronic lack of new housing coming on the market.

An MIT-trained entrepreneur is using robotics and artificial intelligence to make the home-building process faster and less expensive.

Vikas Enti is the founder of Reframe Systems.

We met him at 13 Gilman Street in Somerville, which is the site of “the first high-performance triple decker in Somerville. It was robotically fabricated in our micro factory in Andover, Massachusetts.”

“We went from starting foundation work to handing keys to our customer in about 180 days, so roughly six months. It typically would take about 18 months to build a structure like this in cities like Somerville, so this was almost three times faster.”

Speed is just one of the benefits of Enti’s approach.

“Our costs are almost 20% lower than traditional construction costs.”

A method to create less expensive housing faster could have a lot of appeal in Massachusetts.

“The #1 challenge for us is the cost of living in this state. Too many people can’t rent, can’t afford a home,” said Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey at a recent event in Pittsfield.

Expanding the supply of housing is a priority on Beacon Hill.

The Healey administration says the state needs 222,000 units of new housing by 2035.

“Our priority in this administration is to focus on reducing costs, and that includes building more homes as quickly as possible so that we can jack up the supply and drive down rents and bring prices down.”

Enti spent years developing robotic systems for Amazon.

Now some of that technology is being applied in his micro factory.

For example, a giant robot uses a 3-D camera to scan wood for barcodes. Then it quickly assembles the wood into wall panels.

Modules are created representing a part of the living space. They are then assembled collectively on their permanent site to create a home.

For example, the Somerville project consists of 24 modules.

Everything from woodworking to plumbing is done in the factory, according to specific instructions developed by architects and advanced software.

“We believe factory-built production is a superior architecture. You get to work in a controlled environment, maintain significant quality control, and design homes as a product that can get customized from site to site,” explained Enti.

He added that this is not mass production but is mass customization.

That is a characterization of a micro factory.

Enti doesn’t envision large factories with assembly lines but smaller facilities that can be near where the homes will ultimately be located.

For example, one order they’re working on now is for a dozen four-bedroom homes which will sell for about $800,000 in Devens along Rt. 2.

“Later this year, we have a 24-unit building in Roxbury. That will be our first 5-story apartment building.”

Reframe Systems is so busy that they plan to move to a bigger building and will go from 74 workers to about 100.

Enti believes once people see their finished product, they won’t have any concerns about how their apartment or house was built.

“So, the whole goal is: how do you challenge people’s perception of what factory-built housing looks like, feels like, and is experienced?”

The company is getting more efficient with each project.

While it took 180 days to complete the first Somerville triple decker, the next one will be online in 160 days.

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