An In-Depth Conversation with Thunderhaus Innovator Paul Richards
The construction industry has spent years trying to move more work from the jobsite into factories. Paul Richards believes we may also need to consider moving some of the factory directly to the jobsite.
Richards developed Thunderhaus, a movable, protected site-production system intended to create factory-like working conditions wherever a building is being assembled. Instead of asking workers, materials, and increasingly sophisticated equipment to operate in rain, snow, mud, and poor lighting, Thunderhaus places the construction process inside a controlled environment.
It sounds straightforward. Then again, many useful construction innovations sound straightforward after someone finally develops them.
Richards brings approximately four decades of construction experience to the idea. His background includes owning and operating factories, working with design for manufacture and assembly, delivering thousands of projects, developing ballistic-composite systems and machinery, integrating robotic production systems and advising government and industry programs.
I spoke with him about where Thunderhaus came from, why he questions the industry’s dependence on large fixed factories and how a protected site-production system could change the people, equipment and financing involved in housebuilding.
Paul’s responses have been edited for clarity and length while preserving his meaning.
The Idea Began with a Wet Construction Crew
Gary Fleisher: What inspired Thunderhaus, and how did the idea evolve into a working concept?
Paul Richards: Like many innovations, it began as an attempt to solve a simple problem.
During a long, wet winter in the 1990s, one of my workers told me the crew had endured enough. I built a temporary cover over the site so they could work in dry conditions and get the project moving again. It helped until the storms arrived and demonstrated that the first solution was not nearly strong enough.
However, that experience planted the idea.
Years later, after working internationally and seeing how construction was changing elsewhere, I returned to the same basic question. It still rains in the United Kingdom, and construction crews still lose productive time because of it. Very few other industries would accept weather exposure as a normal operating condition, yet construction continues to do exactly that.
My thinking developed further while studying the UK government’s Retrofit for the Future program. The program applied emerging technologies to approximately 100 existing homes, but I began noticing common gaps in how the work was being delivered.
Then I heard Mark Farmer’s “Modernise or Die” message. It reinforced what I was already thinking: construction needed to adopt new processes and technologies, not simply make small adjustments to the same old methods.
As a teenager, I worked on large commercial projects and saw how organized construction could be. Meanwhile, housing crews were still working in mud and rain, laying one brick on top of another much as they had for generations. That environment wasn't attractive to me then, and it certainly isn't attractive to many younger workers today.
I eventually developed a housing system based on a kit of parts, but the industry focused heavily on large-scale factory production. Volumetric factories were being presented as the answer to nearly every housing problem.
I understood factories because I had owned and operated them. I opened my first facility in my early twenties, expanded into larger buildings and eventually established other manufacturing operations, including a facility in Wales and a production line in Canada.
That experience taught me what a factory needs. More importantly, it taught me what it does not need.
Factories can improve construction, but they are expensive, fixed assets. They require a steady volume of suitable projects and can become difficult to change once the capital is committed. My experience convinced me to ask whether a large permanent factory is always necessary.
Thunderhaus emerged from that question.
A Factory Environment Without the Permanent Factory
Gary: How does Thunderhaus operate in difficult conditions such as winter, nighttime, or prolonged periods of rain?
Paul: The basic principle is to treat the jobsite like a factory.
If workers can reach the site, they should be able to work in a protected, properly lighted, and reasonably comfortable environment. Thunderhaus provides a large enclosure that protects the workers, building and materials from the elements.
Weather protection is only the beginning. The system began as a building rig that holds and positions components accurately during assembly. The rig becomes part of the quality-control process. It can carry loads, support tools, and help workers place components correctly.
The objective is to reduce both physical strain and the opportunities for error.
Factory production improves efficiency by breaking work into repeatable tasks, using specialized tools and incorporating advanced subassemblies. Thunderhaus is intended to bring those same principles to the site.
It could also allow construction teams to work multiple shifts. With proper lighting, power and environmental protection, production would no longer have to stop simply because daylight has disappeared or the weather has changed.
A more controlled workplace could support flexible schedules and make construction accessible to a broader workforce. That includes women, older tradespeople, people with limited mobility, and others who may have the ability to perform construction work but have little interest in the traditional jobsite environment.
I have even considered how to incorporate a childcare facility into a Thunderhaus configuration. If construction wants to attract workers with families, the industry must begin thinking about the conditions under which people can realistically work.
The greatest benefits are achieved when Thunderhaus is included at the earliest planning stage. It is a site-production system, not merely a tent placed over a conventional project after every other decision has already been made.
The building, components, deliveries, and assembly sequence should be designed around efficient site production. Thunderhaus can still help an existing project, but its full value becomes clearer when the entire process is planned around it.
Changing the Workflow Instead of Covering It
Gary: What effect could Thunderhaus have on construction speed, cost, and labor requirements?
Paul: Thunderhaus is a production enabler.
Traditional sites lose time and money in ways the industry has accepted for decades. Materials are handled several times, components are built correctly but installed in the wrong location, unfinished work is reported as complete, and the next trade arrives only to discover that it cannot begin.
Weather-damaged materials, poor communication and unnecessary movement are treated as ordinary construction problems. Collectively, they represent enormous waste.
A site-production system can help the builder break the project into clearly defined tasks and organize the tools, components and materials around those tasks. Proper lighting, dependable power, comfortable working conditions, and lifting assistance allow people to work more intelligently.
The rig should carry the load instead of asking workers to wear themselves out doing it.
Efficiency can also support better wages. If advanced subassemblies and repeatable processes allow people to produce more without sacrificing quality, the value of their work increases.
A safer, more respectful environment should attract skilled tradespeople tired of traditional site conditions. It may also encourage older tradespeople to return and allow people without conventional construction backgrounds to enter the industry through specialized training.
We should stop assuming the only qualified construction worker is a young man willing to spend every winter standing in mud.
Why Richards Calls Thunderhaus a Catalyst
Gary: You have described Thunderhaus as a “catalyst product.” What does that mean?
Paul: Construction has produced a tremendous number of innovations during the past decade. The problem is that many of them remain isolated from one another.
A robotic system may work beautifully inside a controlled demonstration area. A digital platform may improve scheduling. A material-handling system may reduce labor. But where do these separate innovations come together under real jobsite conditions?
Builders are practical. They want to see a technology operate, test it, and understand whether the financial benefits are real. A presentation or simulation is not enough.
Thunderhaus could provide the protected environment where people, machines and digital systems work together on a real project. It could also host other innovations.
For example, a temporary floor-matting system could create a clean, level surface that supports robotic carriers and other equipment already used in warehouses and manufacturing facilities. Gantries could be hydraulically adjusted to establish comfortable working heights, reduce overreaching and position components accurately.
Lifts could provide access to different work levels. Internal cranes could move and hold assemblies. Cameras could support safety, quality control and remote progress monitoring.
That live information could connect the site to just-in-time ordering and production. Suppliers could see when components are needed instead of relying on incomplete or outdated reports.
Accurate, real-time documentation might eventually influence project financing as well. If funders can verify that defined stages are complete, they could release capital based on measurable progress. That could open construction to different financing arrangements and perhaps smaller groups of investors.
None of those technologies belong exclusively to Thunderhaus. The potential comes from providing a place where they can connect and be used together.
Does Every Project Need a Distant Factory?
Gary: What role could Thunderhaus play in the future of offsite and modular construction?
Paul: One of its most important advantages is mobility.
A fixed factory may be hundreds of miles from the project. Every mile between the factory and site introduces transportation costs, scheduling complications, and additional opportunities for damage or delay.
Thunderhaus could be located on the site, near the site or used in combination with an existing factory. When the project is complete, the system can be disassembled, moved, and used again.
I believe it may eventually operate through a rental model using standardized components configured for different projects. A builder could obtain a site-production environment equipped for a particular assembly process and move it when the work is finished.
This does not mean abandoning established offsite systems. Thunderhaus could help bring proven factory processes and components closer to the place where the building will remain.
I have also explored larger configurations, including a Block Builder concept designed to support volumetric assembly and installation. Some people may consider that idea rather ambitious, but the basic principle is the same: provide a controlled production environment where it is needed instead of assuming every operation must take place inside a distant permanent building.
The Greatest Obstacle May Be Familiar Thinking
Gary: What has been the most difficult part of bringing Thunderhaus to market?
Paul: People sometimes think it looks too simple and ask why it hasn't already been done. Then they begin looking for reasons it will not work.
Resistance to change is nothing new in construction, but something must change. Housing demand continues to grow while the traditional workforce is shrinking.
Housebuilding does not appeal to enough younger people because the working environment often remains cold, wet, physically punishing and disrespectful. Thousands of young people could build worthwhile careers in construction, but many do not see it as their first choice.
We need to ask why.
If construction expects a new generation to join the industry, it must respect that generation and improve the conditions under which it is being asked to work. Without future tradespeople, housing production and the larger economy will suffer.
Thunderhaus will continue evolving. Experienced engineers and other talented people have begun looking at the concept and seeing how different technologies could connect through it.
I do not know exactly where the idea will ultimately lead. The world contains many people who are more knowledgeable than I am in specific areas, and I want to see what they can do with it.
That is what makes it a catalyst. Thunderhaus does not need to contain every innovation. It needs to provide the stage where those innovations can finally perform together.
Gary’s Observation
For years, offsite construction has been based on one central idea: if jobsites are inconsistent and inefficient, move the work into a factory.
Paul Richards is asking a question the industry should not dismiss: What if we could also bring the factory environment to the building?
Thunderhaus is not simply protection from rain. Its larger purpose is to create a temporary production facility where workers, advanced components, lifting systems, robotics, and digital monitoring can function together under controlled conditions.
Will every feature Richards envisions become practical? Probably not. That is true of nearly every ambitious innovation at the beginning. The important question is whether the basic concept solves enough real problems to deserve a full-scale demonstration.
Construction loses an extraordinary amount of time and money to weather, damaged materials, repeated handling, poor coordination and working conditions that younger people understandably avoid. We complain about all of those problems individually while continuing to build in much the same way.
Perhaps the most innovative part of Thunderhaus is not the enclosure, gantry or movable equipment. It is Paul’s refusal to accept that rain, mud, physical exhaustion and unpredictable production must remain permanent features of housebuilding.
The industry has invested heavily in taking construction to the factory. It may be time to discover what happens when we take the factory to construction.
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