Katerra, an American technology company focussed on bringing progressive solutions to the antiquated construction industry, has announced that the company will join forces with renowned Canadian timber architecture company Michael Green Architecture Inc. (MGA).
MGA is based out of Vancouver and specializes in delivering forward-thinking architecture designs and is known for delivering innovative mass timber construction projects.
“We are known for our ambition to build more carbon neutral buildings and focus on climate sensitive approaches and affordability, those are all things part of our values,” said Michael Green, principal architect and founder at MGA. “We think we can drop the cost of construction by 30% by just retooling and thinking about the way buildings work and the process of making them.”
Both companies will work side-by-side to revolutionize building methods and construction from the ground up and Green believes the cohesion of the two company missions makes them amicable partners.
“[Katerra] is a three-year old company, they have raised billions of dollars in that time and they are a very well-funded company interested in transformation of the design and construction industry through technology,” said Green.
“Michael Marks, the CEO of Katerra, who used to be CEO of Tesla, has very similar values to me in consider how to use technology to build better quality, better design, more sustainable and more affordable buildings faster than anybody else and better than anybody else.”
MGA will keep their original name and continue to operate in parallel to Katerra as the two develop their business relationship.
“We are one of the last industries to awaken to a new paradigm of thinking,” admit Green. “Not unlike the way Amazon has changed retail and Airbnb and Uber has changed their industries, our industry is ready for that same transformation and I very much wanted to be on the inside of that change.”
