Green Fire Times: B.Public Disrupting the Home Building Industry
“We are trying to make this technology accessible so that it can be much more widely adopted,” Dillman said. “For low-rise construction with square corners and 10-foot ceilings, we have created building blocks that will allow anyone to achieve high performance, comfort, sustainability and cost predictability. ”
With help from the Santa Fe Business Incubator, B.Public Prefab was recently launched to address the housing shortage and global climate crisis with a disruptive solution. The public-benefit (B) company offers high-performance, environmentally friendly modular building products and services. It was formed by partners CEO Edie Dillman, COO Charlotte Lagarde and Chief Technology Officer Jonah Stanford, who has been designing homes to Passive House standards since 2008. “Passive House” is a German standard for energy-efficiency that has been around for 30 years. B.Public’s prefabricated wall roof and floor panels speed construction, ensure quality craftsmanship and reduce a building’s energy consumption by up to 90 percent over its lifetime, while utilizing recycled and petroleum-free materials. The panelized components work together to create a super-insulating envelope. “Smart” vapor layers on the outside and on the interior breathe. The company offers licensed home designs with a complete set of construction drawings for single or multi-family homes, studios, eco-cabins and townhomes for infill or off-grid. B.Public provides technical assistance to homeowners, architects, builders and developers. “We are trying to make this technology accessible so that it can be much more widely adopted,” Dillman said. “For low-rise construction with square corners and 10-foot ceilings, we have created building blocks that will allow anyone to achieve high performance, comfort, sustainability and cost predictability. The innovative homes only cost 5 to 8 percent more than conventional construction. “We have lowered the barrier for builders and developers to be able to reach standards that only custom houses could aspire to achieve until now,” Dillman said. “Builders are key to serving clients and we are dedicated to supporting our local trades.” In January, after an installation crew of three erected and weathered a home near Angel Fire, New Mexico, in about a week, the B.Public team hosted local builders to tour the project. A growing list of clients are placing orders for the pre-fab panels.