5YF Episode #22: Higharc CEO Marc Minor

Future of Housing: Digital Homes

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Today, we explore the future of building new and affordable housing.

Most houses in the US are designed and brought to market like products

Higharc is on a mission to revolutionize the $100 trillion U.S. residential real estate market, and cutting-edge technology is paving the way. Already thousands of homes are being delivered through a unified, data-rich platform that streamlines everything from sales to supply. This approach reimagines one of the most complex and expensive supply chains, transforming it into a highly agile, AI-assisted process.

Could this be our best chance to address the 6 million home shortfall quickly and affordably? I sit down with Higharc’s CEO, Marc Minor, who brings the disruptive mindset of someone who spent his career pioneering 3D printing to now tackle our housing challenge.

My 5 Year Outlook:

• Your Next House Is A Data Model: Simulating and optimizing from design to suppliers to change orders.‍
• On-Demand Material Science: Dramatic lowering of the testing cost of new materials, structures, and processes.‍
• Cheers To Instant Permits!: Automatic approvals via API connectivity to government and council.

Curious? Read on as I unpack each below 👇🏼

Your Next House Is A Data Model

A digital thread. One single source of data that automatically flows through every group

Currently, home building is a siloed process, with multiple stakeholders working independently. But the future lies in developing a unified digital workspace that breaks down these silos and creates a central source of truth. Traditional blueprints and CAD drawings have only brought the industry so far. The next evolution is a “digital thread” that connects everyone, from the customer and sales team to the worksite and back again.

Higharc’s innovation goes beyond conventional drawing sets by creating a spatial data model of a home. This data model serves as the central source of truth, allowing for dynamic 3D visualizations for salespeople, customizable material options, seamless sourcing of estimations from suppliers, and precise delivery of takeoff sheets onsite. Crucially, this data model automatically updates in response to changes from any stakeholder, whether they come from the job site or the customer, dynamically readjusting building plans, costs, and materials.

This approach extends beyond just the home itself; it also models the environment in which the home is being built. Factors like land topography, sun orientation, and surrounding aesthetic features can all be encoded into the model, providing rich contextual information. The result is a faster, more accurate, end-to-end process that remains resilient to the inevitable changes that occur throughout a project’s lifecycle.

Looking ahead, such a data model lays the groundwork for increased automation and AI-assisted construction. Each step of the process could soon have its own AI agent to offer recommendations and optimize decision-making. Home building will be fully simulated and refined in software before actual construction begins, with real-time monitoring to ensure projects stay on track and aligned with the owners vision.

Marc Minor, CEO of Higharc

Higharc is a software platform that helps new home builders get to market with unprecedented speed and efficiency. Higharc’s mission is to modernize the $100 trillion U.S. residential real estate market and make home ownership more affordable. The platform has been used to design over 4,000 homes and has raised more than $80 million from top built-world investors such as Fifth Wall, Spark Capital, Lux, and a host of strategic partners, including Home Depot.

Marc Minor is the co-founder and CEO of Higharc. He spent his career in the 3D printing and fabrication space, leading the marketing departments at Carbon and Desktop Metal before founding Higharc in 2018.

On-Demand Material Science

A potential benefactor of the digital simulation of home building is the adoption of advanced, sustainable materials. From innovative support beams to eco-friendly insulation and cutting-edge 3D printing techniques, a growing library of materials offers exciting possibilities for home buyers and builders. However, shifting from conventional supplies to novel materials carries high risks, and mistakes can be costly.

Digital simulation allows for precise testing without the real-world risks, time, or expense. It enables builders to swap out any building material and run simulations to evaluate its performance, impact, and cost. This virtual testing environment can be done within the precise context of where the home is being built and its environmental influences.

We can swap out any building materials automatically and run simulations on it

Take, for example, recycled plastic composites, which are both durable and environmentally friendly. Digital simulations could highlight their strength and resistance to weathering, making them ideal for coastal or flood-prone areas, thus promoting their use in sustainable construction.

By minimizing risks and highlighting the advantages of new green materials, digital simulations and AI-driven tools empower builders and homeowners to confidently embrace sustainable and innovative options. This, in turn, fuels greater demand and adoption from emerging material suppliers, driving further innovation in the industry.

Cheers To Instant Permits!

Innovations are poised to extend beyond the design and construction process into the regulatory realm. With housing data models containing all the necessary information and the ability to be thoroughly analyzed, there is a clear path toward automating the permitting review and approval cycles conducted by local councils and state officials. Permitting is one of the most opaque and slowest components of construction, often plagued by backlogs and inconsistencies, adding months to project timelines.

A stamp can effectively be applied based on a set of algorithms.

To start, local laws and permit requirements for a specific project can be encoded into algorithms that run against the housing data model. This would enable developers to undergo a pre-approval review process, scoring how likely their project is to be approved and allowing for necessary adjustments before submission. It could even involve analyzing past submissions to enhance their chances of a successful approval.

As government officials build trust in this process and begin to adopt it, they could empower their staff to develop and refine the algorithms that govern approvals. Eventually, permits could be reviewed and issued almost instantly through an API. While maintaining transparency and control over decision-making will be a challenge, the potential benefits of reducing bureaucratic red tape and significantly shortening the time needed to bring new homes online are immense.

While none of these innovations alone can solve the 6 million home shortfall, together they represent a significant step forward in the overall efficiency and modernization of the housing industry.

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Let’s get building!