For decades, architects and businesspeople have argued that the construction industry is ripe for industrialization. Taking the messy, slow, and costly process of building away from the job site and into a streamlined factory has been a dream for everyone from iconic architects and designers like Frank Lloyd Wright and Buckminster Fuller to present-day companies like Assembly and Bone Structure.

Now, a new venture from a company inside Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate is taking on the challenge of creating and scaling modular architecture. With the big-budget backing of a parent company that’s worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the initiative may just have a chance to succeed at creating cheaper and faster buildings where so many others have fallen short.

There are plenty of hurdles to making this type of construction process work, from the high overhead of building and running factories to the regulatory and labor challenges of getting unconventional construction approved. Then there is the issue of making sweeping changes in the construction industry itself, a large, decentralized, and risk-averse business. Few companies have been able to both turn the ship and navigate these complicated waters.

The folks behind Berkshire Hathaway’s project hope their experience will be different. Formally launching today, the initiative is a joint venture between MiTek, a construction software and building services company, and New York City-based Danny Forster & Architecture, which has designed several high-profile modular buildings, including one that will soon be the tallest modular hotel in the United States. Their approach combines Forster’s firsthand knowledge of the shortcomings of modular construction and the wide range of construction companies under MiTek’s umbrella, including a manufacturer of structural steel, a maker of high-rise building facades, and a maker of the fireproof wall boards that line the insides of buildings around the world.

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