Building the Future: Rethinking Home Construction Through Design and Technology
Maged Guerguis, associate professor and McCarty Holsaple McCarty Endowed Professor, accepts an award on stage from Chancellor Donde Plowman during the Chancellor's Innovation Fund awards ceremony at Jackson Terminal on April 07, 2026. Photo by Steven Bridges/University of Tennessee.
The future of home construction may not begin with a hammer or a stack of lumber. It may begin with a robot.
At the School of Architecture, Associate Professor Maged Guerguis is rethinking how buildings take shape. His research explores how computational design and digital fabrication methods could transform construction by blending architecture, engineering, and emerging technology. The result is a new approach to housing, one that is lighter, smarter, and more affordable.
Guerguis, who teaches design and structural technology, was recently awarded $50,000 from the , a competitive program that provides seed funding to help faculty develop and commercialize new technologies. The award will support the launch of OTTO, a startup designed to bring Guerguis’ integrated building system from research into real-world use.
“Turning research breakthroughs into real-world technologies is a key way in which we fulfill our responsibility as a land-grant university,” said Deb Crawford, vice chancellor for research, innovation, and economic development. “This initiative closes critical gaps between discovery and impact.”
Experience with Large-Scale Digital Printing
Guerguis’ research explores advanced manufacturing approaches at the building scale, including large-scale additive manufacturing as one of several methods. Using digital fabrication tools and advanced production technologies, he investigates how structures can be realized with greater precision and flexibility than traditional construction methods.
“The way we’ve built homes hasn’t changed in 140 years,” Guerguis says. “It’s slow, fragmented, and wasteful with frequent cost overruns and delays. But when we start thinking about construction as a system instead of separate pieces, we can simplify the entire process.”
His work has extended beyond the university through collaborations with and the , where he explored how advanced fabrication methods can create forms that would be difficult or even impossible to build using conventional techniques.
While no single fabrication method is suited for every project, Guerguis says the strength of these approaches lies in their flexibility and ability to support customization.
“With digital fabrication, we can move beyond standard shapes and create efficient forms that respond to structure, performance, and design all at once.”
Topology Optimization
Another aspect of Guerguis’ research focuses on topology optimization, a design approach that places material only where it is structurally needed. Using computational tools and stress analysis, he identifies where a structure carries the most load and strategically distributes material in those areas, informing more efficient building systems.
Inspired by nature’s efficiency, this approach creates lighter, stronger structures while using fewer resources. It reflects principles pioneered by , whose lightweight structural designs helped reshape modern architecture.
Topology optimization is already used in aerospace and automotive industries, where it has reduced material use by up to 40 percent. Guerguis believes similar strategies could reshape residential construction by lowering costs and improving sustainability.
“Nature is incredibly efficient,” Guerguis says. “We’re using computational tools to learn from those patterns and apply them to architecture.”
For Guerguis, efficiency isn’t just about saving materials. It’s also about improving how people live.
“Think about your everyday experience at home,” he says. “Do you have enough natural light? How is your indoor air quality? Do you feel connected to the outdoors? These aren’t luxuries, they shape how you live, work, and sleep every day.”
From Research to Market
With support from the Chancellor’s Innovation Fund, Guerguis is advancing OTTO’s core technologies, including the U-Panel, a system he has developed that is patent pending and integrates smart infrastructure directly into the building assembly.
The U-Panel includes built-in channels for electrical wiring, plumbing, and mechanical systems, serving as a building block for an integrated smart home system that allows homeowners to monitor and control lighting, HVAC, water usage, and security directly from their phones.
OTTO will also feature a digital platform where users can choose and customize key features online, creating a more personalized experience and helping bring well-designed, high-performance homes to a wider range of homeowners, from affordable housing to high-end homes.
With OTTO expected to launch in the coming months, Guerguis is focused on moving these innovations from research into real-world housing solutions and laying the groundwork for a more efficient and scalable approach to home construction.
“Home construction hasn’t fundamentally changed in decades,” he says. “But with computational design and digital fabrication, we have an opportunity to rethink how homes are made from the ground up, making them more efficient, more adaptable, and better suited to how people live today.”