Image credit: Blokable.com

As a former Amazon manager who helped create Amazon’s first two physical stores, Amazon Go and Amazon Books, Aaron Holm knows what it takes to build a building efficiently. During his time at Amazon, he started to see a link between the problems of homelessness and housing affordability in Seattle. Holm knew there was a huge demand for housing, but most custom homes were extremely expensive, inefficient and could take months or years to build. He saw a need for homes that could be ordered online, customized and installed within weeks.

So, he launched Blokable, a start-up company dedicated to the development of safe and software-enabled building that could be ordered and delivered rather than built on site. It all started with Holm’s fascination with shipping container houses. He visited Detroit in 2015, where shipping container housing was becoming popular. He liked the simplicity of the shipping container houses, but they were lacking in quality. His housing project needed to be customizable, high-quality and easily delivered. Last March, Blokable was born.

“I became convinced that the world needed a beautifully designed, safe and software-enabled building that could be ordered and delivered rather than built on site,” said Holm, on the Blokable blog. “To achieve this, we’d have to design a building system that could produce different lengths, achieve different square footage and give customers the ability to create different designs, forms and price points. The biggest need and where we could provide the most benefit to start was to enable developers to reduce the cost and complexity of building housing.”

Bloks are available in various customizable floor plans, including studio, one bedroom and two bedroom Blok apartments, office Bloks, community space Bloks and storage Bloks. There are three levels of interior fit and finish: Basic, Mid and Premium. The standard Bloks come in 18’, 26’, 30’ and 34’ lengths. They are stackable up to four stories and created out of steel with a membrane roof. All of the materials used are durable and high quality. They are energy efficient with highly insulated exteriors, energy and water saving fixtures and equipment and are LEED ready. The exterior walls have a rain screen. Bloks are equipped with automatic fire sprinkler systems as well as a fire alarm/strobe system. All Blokable homes are smart-home enabled and can be managed online. Designers and customers can upgrade their Bloks to have a deck, ramp, furniture and mini-split heat pump HVAC unit.

Bloks are built in Washington and shipped out to the build site. Bloks will eventually to be available anywhere in the continental U.S., but for now Blokable is focusing on projects within 1,000 miles of Seattle. A Blokable home costs $150 to $350 per square foot, depending on what features and finishes the designer chooses.

To learn more about Blokable visit their website here.