Innovation

Lego-style apartment complex opens doors in Florida

Each three-storey block was built by 11 unskilled workers equipped only with a mallet and a glue gun (Renco USA)
A 96-unit apartment complex built with Lego-style, snap-together blocks has opened its doors to residents in Palm Springs, Florida.

It was put up by a small crew of unskilled workers armed only with mallets and glue guns.

Renco USA is the company behind it.

Executive Patrick Murphy tells this month’s 21CC Podcast how they did it, and why they’re not like Katerra.

(Story starts at 9 minutes, 51 seconds.)

The blocks are made from recycled plastic and glass fibre.

Glued together, they form a monolithic structure that is impervious to water, mould, and termites, and can withstand 250mph winds.

The completed complex in Palm Springs, Florida (Renco USA)

The material is lighter and stronger than concrete, and making the blocks produces a tiny fraction of the emissions concrete does.

The company behind the system, Renco USA, spent 10 years in testing, research and development.

In October they raised $18m in their first funding round to build a US factory with a view to making the system available across the country.

Story for GCR? Get in touch via email: [email protected]

Comments

  1. Very interesting.

  2. Very Corbu – elegant !

Comments are closed.

Latest articles in Innovation