He may be multi-degreed and multidimensional, but BuildLabs cofounder Punit Chugh has a singular mission: to bring affordable, sustainable housing to the Hamptons market — in a box.
Based in Bridgehampton, Chugh, who calls his company a construction and technology firm, has created a portfolio of about 30 styles of prefab homes, all precision-designed and cut in Germany in a method that marries traditional materials and agile technology. The process maximizes efficiency, optimizes materials and site conditions, and minimizes construction waste. Done right, it delivers higher-quality homes at lower costs.
If it sounds like new-fangled magic, it is — sort of.
Called Hybrid Construction Methodology, it’s an artificial intelligence-driven process still in its infancy. But according to construction-trade experts, it’s poised to take off, if not over, and is considered a highly energy-efficient and ecofriendly way to build with minimal waste.
HCM accomplishes this by meticulously measuring, cutting and creating an inventory of all the pieces that go into building a house, from the door jambs to the walls or roof system. Pieces in related “families” are multipurpose, so if a piece intended for the door jamb doesn’t work it might be used in a window or cabinet frame instead. It does not get wasted.
“We are really a bunch of material scientists,” Chugh says. But, he adds, the real goal of the 11-year-old BuildLabs is “to be a smart company more than to be a building company.”
360 degrees of construction
Born in India, Chugh began his architect career in Bangalore and then worked in Australia for several years on large projects, including hospitals and stadiums, while earning his master of architecture degree. The complexity and scale of those projects inspired him to pursue a master of construction management degree from the University of New South Wales. Upon moving to the U.S. in 2003, he added a master of science degree in finance and real estate from New York University to his portfolio. But that wasn’t enough: He went on to earn a Trium Global Executive MBA, an 18-month, six-city program administered by NYU Stern School of Business, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and HEC Paris.
“I guess I call myself a professional student,” Chugh says. “I have a restless mind that likes to look at problems and try to solve them, and education was my quest to find something that I am passionate about.”
But more than satisfying his passion and intellectual curiosity, an advanced education gave Chugh a 360-degree understanding of the construction industry — from design, procurement and build to contracts, cost and market analysis. And it led him to find a better way to create. He brought his wife, Anjali Gupta, whom he calls his “accomplice,” along for the journey, cofounding BuildLabs in 2013.
“I wanted to see if we could make a change because I never wanted to be a commoditized player, coming up with a solution at the cheapest possible price,” Chugh says. “People who change the world are people who believe in solutions outside of the box.”
Instead, he sought to combine quality, craftsmanship and economy in an approachable and attractive package in one of the most expensive and challenging real-estate markets on the East Coast: the Hamptons.
Automatic for the people
“We started here because the standards and the demand are high, and we thought if we could succeed here, we could succeed in any part of the country,” Chugh says. He also thought the area was a good test market for demystifying custom homebuilding — specifically, the idea that everything should be created from scratch. Noting that people have been building basics like walls, roofs and insulation for 300 years, and the needs for those systems have changed little, Chugh reasoned, why not seek out a way to automate them?
He found that in a German factory that specializes in AI-driven precision cutting for all the pieces that go into a house. The site was chosen for three reasons: the factory is a leader in the technology; the unparalleled level of manufacturing skill, experience and craftsmanship; and the quality of the raw materials — old-growth timber from Germany’s Black Forest.
Chugh went back to the architectural drawing board to arrive at the designs and then put in the time with other construction experts, including a former college mentor, to model his company for the market. He aligns with designers, other architects and experts in site conditions. He conducts a fit analysis and a risk analysis to ensure he has an answer to every question that might arise, a solution for every problem.
“A good solution requires well-thought-out processes and needs an empirical way of measuring things and then coming back with the right solution because the customer is relying on your expertise and, in the end, the clients have to win,” Chugh says.
They can win financially, too. BuildLabs offers fixed-price contracts, which reduce change orders and can result in 35-40% savings, Chugh says. In the East End market, construction costs for a BuildLabs home can start at $650 per square foot and are based on the selected model and other factors. In a market where average construction costs for similar homes hover around $1,000 to $1,200 per square foot, the difference is eye-catching. The timeline is tempting, too: Depending on size, BuildLabs homes can be constructed in two to 12 months.
Each house in BuildLabs’ portfolio is customizable, from the paint colors to the door and window styles, the ceiling heights and the number of floors. Even, sometimes, the configuration to the land’s contour.
“It’s not about creating a hodgepodge or collage of things: We want to have singularly well-built architectural elements, and that is why being an architect builder or having one is so important,” Chugh says.
Val Florio, a registered architect in Sag Harbor who has recommended BuildLabs homes to a number of his clients, says “This product differs in every way — quality of the materials, efficiency and a highly precise fabrication method. Everything is built indoors, so it arrives at the job site perfect. It is within millimeters of being exact.”
Florio says he helps clients get past the idea of a modular house.
“It has a negative connotation in a luxury housing market,” he says. “But I tell people to look for themselves and see the bones of the house in mid-construction, and once they [do], they can see it far exceeds conventional stick framing and they are sold on the spot.
“I don’t push the product. I just say it’s a really neat way to build a house.”
Planning the premade details
Stephen Wright wasn’t a client of Florio’s. He was, however, a BuildLabs buyer who felt similarly convinced by the concept. Even so, he took a trip to Germany to watch the fabrication process firsthand: he was, after all, BuildLabs’ first client.
“It was never my intention to build,” Wright says, but when faced with the costs to repair the rundown bungalow he and his wife had bought in Sag Harbor, they considered the option. The couple followed the recommendation of a real-estate agent who knew of BuildLabs, which was still new at the time.
At the factory, Wright says, “I inundated them with questions to try to understand what I was buying and how what I was seeing in Germany was going to be built in the U.S.”
In the end, what he observed convinced him that “it was a very legitimate product.” The models he saw had the modular European quality he liked, but he and his wife ended up choosing a modern farmhouse model customized to their liking. The house arrived in seven containers and their family of four took occupancy in 2020, just before the COVID-19 shutdown.
As BuildLabs’ first client, Wright says there were a lot of logistics to work through, but in the end, “I’m very pleased with the decision. Anyone who comes in admires the aesthetics, how solid and square everything is.” He adds that he admired how clean the process was, with everything intact upon arrival and very little waste on the job site.
Although Chugh started on the East End, he won’t stop here. BuildLabs is constructing a fabrication factory in North Carolina, like the German one, and Chugh plans to have master craftsmen come stateside to train employees. Next year, his goal is to produce half a million square feet out of that facility and, by 2027, produce 10-million square feet of construction materials. Those numbers, Chugh says, are a drop in the bucket compared to the metric of 1.2 billion square feet needed to satisfy the market with affordable and sustainable housing.
“I don’t believe that we can define where our product will be or which market needs our product,” he says. “I believe it is our job to provide a good solution and let the market dictate and figure out the good fit for it.”
