Automated Architecture (AUAR) has secured £5.1m in funding for the creation of an automated homebuilding platform
Planet A is providing the funding for homebuilding robots along with Shadow Ventures, Common Magic, Concrete VC, and other investors.
The robots are designed to reduce construction costs by 30-40% and improve the flow of the value chain.
Are homebuilding robots a solution to rising costs?
Named the AUAR Micro-Factory, the automated construction machines are mobile manufacturing units that use locally sourced timber to produce homes.
This saves costs on transporting materials and speeding up builds through automation.
Rising costs in construction is a massive issue worldwide, and a report released in the UK in January shows that these rising inflation prices are only expected to continue growing.
This particularly affects construction materials, with general prices seeing a 3.5% increase year-on-year in December 2024, and a 0.7% rise month-on-month.
For timber specifically, prices for sawn and planed wood became more stable, but high demand for structural timber kept prices on the higher end.
Import costs also grew, seeing a 1.5% growth year-on-year.
The UK has committed to utilising automation as part of its Smart Machines Strategy 2035.
Using AI to transform the process
The micro-factories are rentable, and offer a combination of robotics, generative design, and AI to produce timber structures and reduce on-site labour.
This could also tackle the skills shortage, as the government tries to increase the number of workers, including carpenters, through programmes such as apprenticeship skills hubs, the use of homebuilding robots could potentially decrease the need for skilled labour and relieve some of the strain.
The need for more workers was summed up by minister for skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith, who said: “This government is committed to 1.5 million homes being built across this parliament, while breaking down barriers to opportunity by fixing our broken skills system.
“If we are to meet this ambitious target and fix the foundations of our economy, we need to ensure we have a skilled workforce, and give more apprentices a foot on the career ladder.
“The need to boost our country’s skills is crucial to our mission-driven government, and I am pleased that this initiative will give apprentices skills to seize opportunity.”
Nick Durham, general partner at Shadow Ventures, said, “We’ve dreamed for decades about how to bring a prefabrication model that would help increase the supply of housing through lower costs of construction. This model must lower construction costs, increase speed, have the design customisability that developers seek, and plug into the existing builder/developer process because not everyone can finance a factory.”
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