Blue Planet

New tools, materials, and building methods continue to emerge in construction, although their impact does not always spread quickly across the industry. A 2024 analysis found that global construction productivity increased by about 10% between 2000 and 2022, compared with 50% across the broader economy and 90% in manufacturing. The comparison does not mean construction should operate like a factory, but it raises questions about where different approaches could improve how buildings are designed and delivered.

Part of the challenge is the nature of construction itself. Buildings differ by site, purpose, regulation, climate, design, and the people involved in delivering them. A method that works well on one project may not transfer neatly to another, which can make widespread change more complicated than simply introducing a new product.

There is also a difference between developing an idea and making it practical enough for everyday use. The same McKinsey research notes that several construction innovations have yet to achieve adoption at scale. For developers, that suggests the useful question may be whether a new approach can fit into the wider process involving architects, engineers, contractors, manufacturing, and project delivery.

Building codes and permitting add another consideration. New methods still have to be evaluated through established engineering and safety requirements, which means innovation does not happen separately from the systems already governing construction. In practice, an approach may become more useful when it offers something different while remaining code-conforming and understandable to the professionals and authorities responsible for designing, reviewing, and approving a project.

Rob Manchise, Director of Marketing, and Mark Heath, founder of Blue Planet, both see BP2 RIPS as one example of that approach. Heath traces the system to his examination of earlier sandwich-panel technology and a question about whether its structural and manufacturing logic could be reconsidered. Rather than treating the existing panel as a finished answer, he focused on how forces moved through it and how its components were connected.

"Move the energy to the outside, fill the middle with foam," Heath explains. "And to transfer the energy, use a lightweight welded-wire truss." He says changes to the truss and mesh configuration became central to the system he later developed.

A U.S. patent granted in 2022 lists Heath as the inventor and Blue Planet Technologies as the assignee. It explains structural panels using welded-wire trusses, filler material, and cementitious thin shells reinforced with welded-wire mesh, with components that can vary according to structural requirements. Heath believes that flexibility could matter because projects rarely ask exactly the same thing of a building.

Manufacturing is part of the same discussion. Heath says the team has tried to build flexibility into the production process by relying on commercially available components and a relatively simple setup. From his perspective, the goal is to make it easier to adjust panel configurations for different projects rather than requiring every design to fit a narrow manufacturing template.

The harder challenge may be changing habits. Heath frames construction as an industry where experience is often passed from one generation to the next. "We tend to build in familiar ways because those methods have been passed down through generations," Heath observes. "That can make it harder for new approaches to gain acceptance, even when the industry's needs are changing." His point is less that tradition is a problem than that unfamiliar methods may need to show they can fit into established ways of working.

For BP2, Heath says that includes engineering projects in compliance with ACI 318, the American Concrete Institute's structural concrete code. The code sets minimum requirements for the materials, design, and detailing of structural concrete. Heath believes working within an established framework like this can make a newer construction method easier for engineers and permitting authorities to evaluate.

Design flexibility could then become part of the commercial discussion. Manchise sees flat roofs as potential space for gardens, patios, solar applications, and outdoor living, while larger openings may support stronger indoor-outdoor connections. In multifamily development, he believes those choices could help reconsider how higher-density housing feels. "What if a multifamily townhome could give residents a private rooftop patio with more usable outdoor space than a traditional backyard?" Manchise observes.

Blue Planet sees multifamily housing and planned unit developments as possible early applications, with potential interest from real estate investors and investors following innovative disruptive building technologies. That does not make every project suitable for the approach. It does suggest a broader way to judge construction innovation: whether an engineering idea can become practical enough to design, approve, manufacture, build, and live with at scale.