Aera systems LLC is developing a modular cross laminated timber (CLT) homebuilding facility in nashville, tennessee

Aera Systems LLC received a $589,430 Project Grant from the USDA Forest Service's Wood Utilization Assistance program (CFDA 10.674) awarded on September 3, 2025, with a completion date of September 2, 2030. The grant funds applied research and development activities in Aera Systems' product development department to advance Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) homebuilding capabilities at its Nashville, Tennessee manufacturing facility. The funded work encompasses two primary deliverables: development of a standardized library of connections, details, and assemblies for CLT single-family home construction, and design and engineering of a production process to prefabricate homes using these standardized details.

The project directly supports the Wood Utilization Assistance program's focus on expanding wood products markets and advancing mass timber construction technologies. By establishing standardized CLT construction methodologies and manufacturing processes, Aera Systems aims to overcome technical and market barriers in single-family CLT housing production, enabling the company to achieve cost-competitive, high-quality home manufacturing at scale. The product development work will operate in parallel with the company's active production operations, with research findings continuously integrated into manufacturing efforts to optimize production efficiency and affordability metrics.

Our mission is to demonstrate how CLT can be used to produce high quality, cost competitive, single-family homes at a production homebuilding scale. This project will fund work in our product development department towards two goals. The first goal is the development of a standardized library of connections, details and assemblies for CLT single-family home construction. The second is the design and engineering of a production process necessary to prefabricate homes using our standard details. Achievement of both of these goals is necessary to overcome the challenges facing single CLT construction in the single family home space. The product development department will work separately but in parallel with our production department, which will be actively producing homes from day one. The applied research and development from our product development department will be FED directly into our production efforts to eventually achieve the key metrics which will allow US to rapidly produce affordable CLT housing.