??Construction productivity "has practically flatlined" over the past 25 years according to Nabr co-founder Bjarke Ingels, who explained how his housing startup intends to revolutionise the sector in an exclusive interview with Dezeen.
BIG founder Ingels, along with former WeWork executive Roni Bahar and former Sidewalk Labs model lab head Nick Chim, established Nabr with the aim of creating a "fundamental transformation of the [housing] industry".
Described as a "consumer-first housing company", Nabr aims to create a series of mass-timber apartment blocks using modular construction.
Nabr to apply design to "entire process" of creating housing
The company, which is starting construction of its first apartment block in San José in early 2022, believes that incorporating design, development and customised financing models will allow it to change how housing is created in the USA. "Architects or designers are, in a way, the last ones to get involved [in housing] so it becomes very hard to be part of a more fundamental transformation of the industry," Ingels told Dezeen.
"This is basically an attempt to apply design, not just to the final product, but to the entire process that delivers our homes."
Top: Nabr is creating housing in the USA. Above: Bjarke Ingels (left) founded Nabr with Roni Bahar (centre) and Nick Chim (right)
The Nabr housing block in San José will be the first to be built with a cross-laminated ...