Investment firm Mastry Ventures and LENx, the venture arm of homebuilder Lennar, have co-invested in Vessel Technologies’ next-generation housing product. Vessel, a housing product development company, aims to cultivate a pathway to creating attainable housing across the country.
The company’s housing system is focused on “reimagining the apartment building as a consumer product by creating exciting, sustainable, and user-centric housing at attainable prices,” according to Vessel. This is done by prefabricating wall and ceiling components in Vessel’s own manufacturing facility—cutting costs and time compared to traditional construction methods.
Vessel Technologies’ All-Electric Prefab Building System
The Vessel system is 100% electric; solar panels affixed to the rooftop deliver all of the power required for occupants. With the company’s aim for sustainability, Vessel uses no paint and instead utilizes a proprietary recyclable wall panel system. According to Vessel, its facade system is also twice as energy efficient as built-to-code alternatives.
“Vessel represents a whole new category of housing, innovative in every way, to fill a tremendous void: the dearth of truly excellent, deeply desirable and economically accessible rental homes,” said Sam Landman, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Mastry Ventures.
The investment in Vessel Technologies by Masty and Lennar will allow the product company to accelerate its efforts of providing high-quality buildings, from rental housing to hospitals and universities. Vessel touts its patented system’s seamless design, with operable pieces that smoothly fit together.
Based in New York City, Vessel currently has 12 projects under development throughout the Northeast—all of which are targeted to be net zero. The company’s building materials are sustainable, fire-resistant, and aim to pair well with proprietary smart tech software.
The software—utilizing the company’s own operating system, vOS—acts as a virtual “super” that monitors the building’s hardware, energy demands, and water usage. Additionally, the system includes hundreds of sensors and electro-mechanical devices to manage a unit’s temperature, air quality, security, lighting, and entertainment systems, according to Vessel.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Decline expected as healthcare slows, but hospital work will remain steady
The once steady 10% growth rate in healthcare construction spending has slowed, but hasn't entirely stopped. Spending is currently 1.7% higher than the same time last year when construction materials costs were 8% higher. The 2.5% monthly jobsite spending decline since last fall is consistent with the decline in materials costs.
| Aug 11, 2010
Luxury Hotel required faceted design
Goettsch Partners, Chicago, designed a new five-star, 214-room hotel for the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The design-build project, with Saudi Oger Ltd. as contractor and Rayadah Investment Co. as developer, has a three-story podium supporting a 17-story glass tower with a nine-story opening that allows light to penetrate the mass of the building.
| Aug 11, 2010
U.S. firm designing massive Taiwan project
MulvannyG2 Architecture is designing one of Taipei, Taiwan's largest urban redevelopment projects. The Bellevue, Wash., firm is working with developer The Global Team Group to create Aquapearl, a mixed-use complex that's part of the Taipei government's "Good Looking Taipei 2010" initiative to spur redevelopment of the city's Songjian District.
| Aug 11, 2010
7 Keys to Unlocking Energy Efficiency in Schools
Today’s best K-12 schools are embracing the sustainability ethos in their design and construction, and that can mean a healthier, more comfortable indoor environment and improved learning. Some studies contend that ample amounts of daylighting, for example, lead to higher test scores. High-performance HVAC systems that constantly draw fresh air into a classroom seem to help both teachers ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Green Building
27. Next-Generation Green Roofs Sprout up in New York New York is not particularly known for its green roofs, but two recent projects may put the Big Apple on the map. In spring 2010, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts will debut one of the nation's first fully walkable green roofs. Located across from the Juilliard School in Lincoln Center's North Plaza, Illumination Lawn will consist ...
| Aug 11, 2010
Giants 300 University Report
University construction spending is 13% higher than a year ago—mostly for residence halls and infrastructure on public campuses—and is expected to slip less than 5% over the next two years. However, the value of starts dropped about 10% in recent months and will not return to the 2007–08 peak for about two years.
| Aug 11, 2010
World's tallest all-wood residential structure opens in London
At nine stories, the Stadthaus apartment complex in East London is the world’s tallest residential structure constructed entirely in timber and one of the tallest all-wood buildings on the planet. The tower’s structural system consists of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panels pieced together to form load-bearing walls and floors. Even the elevator and stair shafts are constructed of prefabricated CLT.
| Aug 11, 2010
Great Solutions: Healthcare
11. Operating Room-Integrated MRI will Help Neurosurgeons Get it Right the First Time A major limitation of traditional brain cancer surgery is the lack of scanning capability in the operating room. Neurosurgeons do their best to visually identify and remove the cancerous tissue, but only an MRI scan will confirm if the operation was a complete success or not.
| Aug 11, 2010
29 Great Solutions
1. Riverwalk Transforms Chicago's Second Waterfront Chicago has long enjoyed a beautiful waterfront along Lake Michigan, but the Windy City's second waterfront along the Chicago River was often ignored and mostly neglected. Thanks to a $22 million rehab by local architect Carol Ross Barney and her associate John Fried, a 1.
| Aug 11, 2010
High-Performance Modular Classrooms Hit the Market
Over a five-day stretch last December, students at the Carroll School in Lincoln, Mass., witnessed the installation of a modular classroom building like no other. The new 950-sf structure, which will serve as the school's tutoring offices for the next few years, is loaded with sustainable features like sun-tunnel skylights, doubled-insulated low-e glazing, a cool roof, light shelves, bamboo tri...
