#45 Aleksandr Gampel: Reinventing Homebuilding with Mobile Micro-Factories and Cuby Technologies

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The Building Culture Podcast

Austin Tunnell

46 episodes

4 days ago

Fusing the liberal arts with architecture, construction and real estate to build a more beautiful, resilient, and thriving world for PEOPLE. I believe a more thriving world is possible through restoring our built environment. But today's hyper-segregated, financialized building industry is not conducive to solving complex problems or creating dynamic places for human flourishing. I interview a wide range of guests involved with crafting the built world: developers, architects, urban designers, builders, investors, inventors & officials, exploring holistic solutions to a better human habitat.

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#45 Aleksandr Gampel: Reinventing Homebuilding with Mobile Micro-Factories and Cuby Technologies

The Building Culture Podcast

55 minutes 22 seconds

3 weeks ago

#45 Aleksandr Gampel: Reinventing Homebuilding with Mobile Micro-Factories and Cuby Technologies

What if the future of affordable housing doesn’t come from prefab or 3D printing, but from building vertically integrated factories that travel to where homes are needed most?

In this episode, I sit down with Aleksandr Gampel, co-founder and COO of Cuby Technologies, to talk about their radical approach: Mobile Micro-Factories. Instead of shipping oversized boxes across the country, they bring a full factory on-site – producing windows, panels, framing, and even helical piers locally, then assembling homes with unskilled labor.

We get into why housing costs have exploded (up 40–50% since pre-COVID), how Cuby’s system cuts hard costs by reducing skilled labor, and why most prefab and modular ventures have failed. Aleks explains how their vertically integrated model works, why they’re targeting small-to-mid-sized builders instead of one-off homeowners, and what it will mean when dozens, or even hundreds, of mobile microfactories are running across the U.S.

We also dive into design: steel tube framing, magnetic facades, and the surprisingly elegant logic behind Toyota’s production system applied to housing. If you’ve ever wondered how we might actually build cost-effective, durable homes at scale – without sacrificing beauty or quality – this episode is worth your time.

CHAPTERS:

00:00 Introduction to Housing Challenges

02:53 The Concept of Mobile Micro Factories

05:35 Manufacturing Process and Product Offerings

08:24 Building Systems and Structural Integrity

11:17 Cost Management and Market Strategy

14:05 Design Flexibility and Market Demand

17:07 Community Development and Housing Affordability

19:53 Operational Dynamics of Mobile Micro Factories

24:43 Building Efficient Factories with Unskilled Labor

27:30 The Role of Automation in Construction

28:54 Phased Business Plan for Housing Production