Juno, a San Francisco-based property development startup, with New York-based Ennead Architects as a design partner, has set its sights on transforming the way multifamily housing is built in the United States. Relying heavily on digital tools for design and fabrication, the collaborators have developed a modular, componentized system, largely of mass timber, that they say results in better quality, shortened construction schedules, and lower costs compared with more traditional methods. Juno’s first project—a five-story apartment building in Austin, Texas, containing 24 market-rate units—is headed for completion later this year.

By “productizing” housing, Juno, established in 2019, is making construction more like the manufacturing process for consumer electronics, according to BJ Siegel, the company’s co-founder and head of design. In his previous role as an executive at Apple, Siegel worked with Ennead on Apple stores in Scottsdale, Arizona, and elsewhere. Ennead has a small equity stake in Juno.