Infinite Loops Brian Potter - How to Fix America's Building Problem
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Apr 23, 2026 
Brian Potter, structural engineer and author of The Origins of Efficiency, explains why prefab keeps failing and why America struggles to build at scale. He recounts Katerra’s rise and fall, traces prefab history, and contrasts rapid data-center buildouts with local opposition to growth. He also explores AI and robotics in construction and which regulatory levers might actually speed building.
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Inside Katerra’s Rise And Collapse
- Brian Potter joined Katerra in 2018 to lead structural engineering and was excited by its factory-built prefab mission.
- Rapid hiring, big factory investments, design rework, COVID, and repeated layoffs collapsed the effort and his team was laid off.
Why Prefab Keeps Repeating Its Failures
- Prefabrication surges every few decades because mass-production success (like Ford) creates the illusion it will transfer to housing.
- Repeated attempts from the 1930s onward failed because factory methods clash with building-site variability and economics.
Don’t Scale Factories Before You Find Product Market Fit
- Avoid scaling a large physical operation before achieving product-market fit because reversing capital-heavy bets is costly.
- Katerra built a huge CLT plant and other in-house trades before the product settled, forcing expensive pivots.
