 Good afternoon, Howard Wiig, Code Green, Think Tech, Hawaii. You know, when we were kids, we read about revolutionaries. It's his name, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and so forth. Well, it brings me great pleasure to bring to the table a totally different type of revolutionary. Nathan Toothman, he's the co-founder of Elevate Structure, which we'll be talking about. But before that, he was a nuclear sub-officer. Be aware, he's also the owner of beer engineering. He is a licensed civil engineer, and he is here to almost literally turn homes on their head. And we have so much material to cover. Nathan, welcome to the show, and let's bring up the first slide, and let's get rolling, because we've got to roll fast here. Thanks, Howard. Thanks a lot for having me here. So I just wanted to kind of go over some updates on Elevate and introduce it. And you can go back to the previous slide there. You know, I've been on the show a couple of times and we've talked about different versions of it. But this entirely new version here is a different spin in that it has a lot more opportunities, a lot more flexibility in the structure. And so I just wanted to first kind of introduce that, and then over time, it kind of becomes clear. So if we can show the desk view here, if you can zoom down the other camera. There it is. Yeah, OK. Yeah, so this is a form of what Elevate has been inspired to turn into in the sense that this would be kind of a starting position for it. And it's a very wide, very large structure with very symmetric, simple members with a pivot point. So it's a very easy structure to assemble. And that's kind of what you see here is it just pivots advance amongst a certain point and comes up into its elevated position, hence the term Elevate structure. Now, this could be a group of homes or one home or a whole neighborhood. Or so the original concept was kind of a micro home concept, like an individual home, a small home, a raised home, elevated for a number of reasons, safety from items below, better views, better breezes, a large void in the middle for water storage. And so that was kind of the initial concept. But then as we realized, as we came up with this radial design for the support structure, when it's in its down position, now it creates a really efficient structure that can then be used for very low cost housing. And so each of these cells here is about 100 square feet. So you're looking at 1200 square feet around the radial area and 200 square feet in the center. And the center could be either manned or it could be a courtyard sort of area. But different covering options fabric architecture could be one prefab panels, others, floor, walls, ceiling. But it's a very efficient way to do a structure. It gets a lot of strength from the the radial balance of it. And again, it's very easy to assemble, very quick, can be set up in a couple hours by a couple of people. And it could be. This could be a whole bunch of people living in one person per structure. Yeah, it could be a range of one of the things we want and we like and the flexibilities that can adapt to whoever the customer is in the culture and how they want to use it. So each person could get one. You could even divide these up into two, so 250 square foot areas. And then but it creates this community sort of feel and that it's centered around this courtyard. Yeah. And so it kind of kind of inward looking structure to get some security there. But it's it's a different thing that we're kind of just evolved into, you know, innovation aspect is it just kind of things come up that you see and then it comes into other aspects. This is revolutionary. Yes. But then so it's but it's really it's transformable, really multifunction in that when you bring it up, this is still kind of one of the core aspects of elevate is, you know, the when it's up. And so what do we do with it? That's that's kind of a question. I mean, it started on a on a purpose. And it's, you know, as you come along through different iterations, different things come up and you see different things and you kind of explore that route and that area. And so now what we want to do with this is we want to make an impact and we want to make an impact in the areas of global housing because we think we have a good solution, both in the up position and in the down position and then also making an impact relative to climate change. So if you can go to the next few slides here and next slide, next slide. OK, so this is kind of where the inspiration point was here, was a point on the North Shore. And that's kind of what inspired the concept was a tree to blend in to be safer to fit the site. And so it kind of it went from that along a process of evolving and evolution to this. So then the next slide, please relative to there, you see the images going through and go to the next one. That's kind of the process we went through there. Next slide, radial balance. We kind of went through that. We'll we'll talk about that a little bit more. Keep going and keep going one more. And that's kind of the simple parts will come back to the couple of these. Keep going. OK, so here for the climate change impact is so is what we see that can happen with the structure is that because it's inspired by a tree and it can look like a tree, it can fit in in the same sense as the tree can. It can fit in places that no other structure can. So in a sense, we're sort of hacked nature to to bring a structure into places that other structures can't fit. You know, it's got a small. But you use the word hack and I keep seeing that more and more generally use among young people. What in this instance is hack? Well, like hacking, obviously, when you hack into like a computer system, you gain entry, you use like a tricky way to get into it, to figure a different way around that wasn't initially thought to gain an advantage from that. So it's kind of a term that we're borrowing relative to structures. In this case, it's a positive term. It's a positive term. Yeah, in a lot of terms, you know, it's used in a positive way when you hack something to make it better or find a new way to do something with it. And so this is using a nature theme to put something where other structures can't fit because it's got a really small impact area on the base here. So 50 square foot here, 200 square foot above. That's a four fold increase of space. And so people can still walk underneath of it. You get shade and that helps with walkable cities. The aesthetics of the outside are important, such that it blends in. And we'll talk about some of the different revisions of that. But it's using that concept. And so relative to impacts we see for it, you can go to the next slide. So as we see, this is a test bed for different technologies up in the upper area here. And so in this case here, we have CO2 scrubbing panels and we have smog removal walls. So it's using some existing technologies and testing different technologies in cities that have issues with pollution and other areas of obviously CO2 is to scrub that from the air in core areas of a city that wouldn't otherwise be achievable. Yeah, I've heard about the CO2 scrubbers and there was something green there, obviously called plants. They're the ultimate CO2 scrubber. Yeah, so we're kind of just enhancing that because the original concept, as you've seen the structure before, was lined with plants. And so that's a natural method for it. And that'll still be present on very many of the revisions of this. So we're looking at ways also to enhance that, to make it more than what you get from just one tree. So, yeah, obviously this would be multiple trees or it could be shrubbery hanging from the walls and so forth. Yeah, yeah, it could be a variety of looks and iterations of these 12 cells that can test out different aspects and different features of that, including different ways to capture, you know, make electricity. Solars on obvious fit for the roof. There can be solar leaves there. They're making leaves that like fake leaves that are solar powered. Many wind turbines. Yeah, the leaves are more efficient than real life for those synthetic trees. Yeah, yeah. So it's finding a lot of different ways to creatively use nature to our benefit in ways that haven't been thought of before. So what do we have on our next slide then? And so it's it's it has a very strong commercial aspect. Each slide is getting the concept is getting larger and larger. It's a very visual concept too. But so here you see the commercial aspect of it. So it's it's intended to really stand on its own merits, whether or not it has any ego aspects to it or not. But in this case, the concept here is that the small that the area in the bottom is used for a small business like a coffee kiosk, a tea business, a juice shop, a small retail. And then this volume up above can be used to store items and then tap into that and lower it down. So so that's that's one used to fit more for small businesses as they get driven out from cities and back into the city, but do it in an aesthetic way that that fits in. And then another really good use that we that's kind of come up through our research was using it for a place making structure. So a city sometimes wants to bring people together and activate a space to get people to watch the football game or the basketball game. I mean, that's what makes a city is bringing people together. Right. Right. Right. So it's an interest. Yeah, that's that's what this can do is essentially in the version you saw in that previous slide, if you bring that back up during during the day, it kind of hides itself as a tree at night time. The walls open or in this case, we have in the center area that's is wider. And so it's a projector or an LED screen. And then the community can come around and gather it, watch, watch the movie on it. Company can be selling popcorn out of the base or whatever. Or you could have vendors around that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Vendors around it and just kind of activate a place, make it fun, make it enjoyable. And so there's as you have something that's really tall in a big open area, it makes it really viewable and really visible from a distance. And so you can project really important images on that. And you can show fun stuff. But you can also show things in relative to climate change. That's how it kind of ties back to that aspect is more awareness. So this is kind of like an iconic structure in an area, if it's doing improvements for the environment, that you can then learn about it as well. And so it kind of it gives importance to that. And it's a way cities or groups can just show that importance to it and then practically make a difference. So it's not going to solve all the problems, but it's a step towards them. Wow. We have time for one more slide before our break. But you're just bringing up so much stuff here. Well, I mean, you know, this is, we've been at this for a while, but we do have a defined plan to make this happen. So we built the first prototype. We'll get to one of those pictures at the end. That's over. Kailua built that about a year and a half ago. But now we're at a stage where this structure alone that you see here can fit in the back of a van. Okay. So we can, we can set it up for a few hours. We can set it up for a few days and we can show it off. We can test it. We can test it really rapidly. So we think we now have a really good, minimum viable product that we can take around and get a ton of feedback on what's what works, what doesn't work, where is it really fitting? So that's one of the first next steps. What would you do about the walls? I mean, this is, this is the frame. Yeah. Just the frame itself isn't too impressive. So just in a few hours with a little material, what would you do to cover the walls? The walls is just like a lift up panel that you just lift up and hang on a hook at the top. So the panels are pretty lightweight. And so it's something that's used design. The whole concept is that every piece is less than 50 pounds. So two people can carry every one of those pieces and hang them on there and then take them off. And so there'd be permanent, more longer term installations where it's more anchored down. It's more, you know, fixed for a longer term, but it runs a span from, you know, two date, two hours to two years, the time that it can be up, depending on location and the needs of that area. And then it would be accompanied by a lot of publicity in the beginning. Come and see this. Yeah, it's something that's obviously different. So it's not hard to draw people to it. When we first built the prototype, there was interest in what is that. So it would naturally gain some attention in social media, things like that. Well, on that cherry note, we need to take a very brief break, Howard Wigg, Think Tech Hawaii with Mason, Mason Tussman, revolutionary and visionary back in a minute. Hi, this is Jane Sugimura. I'm the co-host for Condo Insider. And we're on Think Tech Hawaii every Thursday at three o'clock. And we're here to talk about condominium living and issues that affect condominium residents and owners. And I hope you'll join us every week on Thursday. Aloha. Hi, I'm Stan Enigman. And I want you to be here every Friday. Noon, thinktechhawaii.com, watch the show. Be there. I pity the fool who ain't. Hello, this is Martin de Spang. I wanna get you get excited about my new show, which is Humane Architecture for Hawaii and Beyond. We're gonna broadcast on Tuesdays, 5 p.m. here on Think Tech Hawaii. Hi, I'm Stacey Hayashi and you can catch me on Mondays at 11 on Think Tech Hawaii. Stacey to the rescue. See you then. Hi, I'm Chris Letham with Think Tech Hawaii and I'd like to ask you to come watch my show, The Economy and You, each Wednesday at 3 p.m. Good afternoon once more. I would like to call Green, thinktechhawaii. Have with me, Mason Tussman, nuclear engineer, licensed civil engineer and head of his own company, which is revolutionary and we're talking about whole new concepts. You're just, you're still in the idea stage. You've got something permanent up in Kailua or you've, yeah, so why don't we get right into where we are now and then maybe we can jump back to some of the other slides there. Yeah, yeah. So this is the prototype we built in Kailua and so this is kind of the Rev 1.0 along the lines of a micro home and it's really, I mean, it's evolved as things do but it's really important that we did this to get to where we are now because it really helped refine the design, it helped get people interested in it, helped attract a team. Now, this is a real, this is not Photoshop, this is a real-life photo. No, no, that's a real structure. Yeah, that's the real structure. And so it's really important for our sense and for what we're trying to do to have done something and then really learn from it rapidly and take from it what we learned and go further with it. Yeah, you can use all the modeling under the world. Well, you're an engineer, you know all about modeling but you have to get it out into the real world. And then stuff happens. Right, you have to build something. So we studied it for a long time before we built it but there's no way to tell how where it's gonna, eventually end up and there's still not but we have something now that we can rapidly prototype. Like I said, we can fit this in the back of a van, transport it around and the area we'll be doing this is the Bay Area and get a lot of feedback both from the down structure, the up structure. So in this sense here, the next goal is two prototypes. One we transport around the second one it's kind of like a mini headquarters. So we kind of operate out of this down position. Like, what are these spaces feel like? How much space is it? What are different roof type structures that we could do for it? How to use that? So really personally use it as well. That's one of the best ways is to Nothing like hands on experience. Hands on personal experience. And it helps to not have to talk about these things so much. And when you have something that you can come to and visit it helps, it's better to show and tell obviously. I've worked with so many engineers on so many concepts and it looks so good. And then you get out onto the street. Stuff happens here. So, and for you guys, your team to actually physically experience it. Absolutely nothing like that. Yeah, it's been really important. Like I said before, it helped really attract the team. So we have a great architect working with us and Dennis Olmsted, Martin Despingh has helped out in the time. My wife's been really central to this from the start. She's a civil engineer as well. We attracted a material scientist that's now working with us who also has a background in 3D printing. So that's been really valuable for us. An MBA guy from Stanford and also a software engineer. So we got kind of a techie team and that's what we're trying to do here, too, is we're really taking a fairly simple concept and a simple construction method. Like the prototype you saw was giant I-beams and standard framing. So now we're challenged by some individuals in Silicon Valley who've done a lot in the area of innovation to expand what's possible and add more technology to it, bring the cost down significantly. So we realized that early on, the cost was just, it needs to be really radically different in the cost standpoint. And that's what we think. One thing that comes to mind immediately when now that you're mentioning it is carbon fiber as a material. It's light, it's stronger than the heck. It'll take a licking and keep on ticking. Right, it's extremely great material. And so we've thought about areas relative to wraps, like just the bare minimum, what's the minimum wrap that you need to give as a support and then maybe use other materials. Because obviously carbon fiber is really expensive now and it probably will be for a while. So we're really looking and seeing what parts of it can really improve by adding innovative materials. Yeah, well, you know something about stress being a civil engineer. So what are the high stress points? Yeah, yeah. And that's where it'll help too to build this prototype when it's down and up is that you can really see, like, let's really focus on this area. Let's add a lot more to it in that area. 3D printing's another area. Like this whole structure was 3D printed, but 3D printers right now aren't really at this size. Like this is 45 feet across and these individual members are 14 feet. But what areas can we really add value? So one area might be the roof. So roofs are a really important part of the structure. And so it plays a lot of roles too. You know, it needs to have ventilation, it captures solar, it provides lighting. Oh, and then you mentioned water capture also, didn't you? Yeah, the other aspect is that water capture. And that's really what this... Yeah, here we have it on the slide here. Yeah, here's some of the technical things we want to push forward further is more 3D printing, looking at a roof first. 3D printing of foundations, no one's done that that we've found. So how do you possibly do that? Then also another big one is self-sufficient from a water and wastewater standpoint. And so one of the things I do as a civil engineer is design wastewater systems. And there's ways that it could really be, houses could be more self-sufficient if it's allowed and it's proven even in more urban areas. So we still have septic systems, of course, it's just basically a septic system, but making it to where it really fits in with the house. Making water systems that are really efficient to be off the grid from water. And so those are some of the kind of initial concepts with Elevate was to store water in the base in the trunk of the tree. So this void here, that was a whole original concept, was this is the giant cistern that your house sits on top of. So it's just evolved from that. But those components are still there, those aspects are still there. It's just kind of evolving. Wow. Okay. Well, let's, I don't even know where to go from here. Let's go back to the one with the, what slide number six, or this one here? Oh, slide seven. Seven. Yeah, if I could go back to slide seven. Which one? One, the next one after that. Yeah, here we go. So here's, you know, whenever we built the initial structure when we had the plants on it, you could really feel a cooling effect as the breeze would blow across the plants. And that's a pretty well-known natural phenomenon, evapotranspiration, kind of like a swamp cooler. But this is an area that we can start doing some testing. Like what is that impact of the living walls around the structure, as far as the temperature pooling from the wind, and then also the insulating properties of that. And so there hasn't been structures that are this small all raised up around to test and monitor. So we think that's another thing we wanna be able to test, get some data behind it, see what the efficiency of that is. And the living wall systems we built were like a pre-made panel that was spaced off of the structure. So it's not gonna, it's gonna get airflow. It's not gonna rot. The water's controlled. It's a very controlled system. It's just not a bunch of plants stuck on wood. And so there's ways to do it practically. There's ways to then maybe 3D print the walls to have that living wall part integrated into it and the water catchment and filtering into it. So it's a really well done system to make the living walls very practical. And then it's great too for looks and also for edible plants. And so there's a lot of practical reasons for that. But that's not, it's not a requirement of the structure. Edible plants, now there's a concept. One thing, cherry in our climate, cherry tomatoes are really, really easy to grow. There's a lot of movement towards that grow your own food, social sustainability communities. And then in the lower and down position, you know, what if we draw air in and have that kind of a stack effect out of the center? And how do we cool a very large area? And this is more in developing countries and stuff where we would use this where you know, there's, you gotta do a lot with very little. And but how can we get a comfortable environment from airflow through a structure like this? Either incorporating living walls or other technologies to make this really feasible, mass solution for housing in areas. That's also very transportable, right? Every piece of this can be then taken apart in a few hours and taken somewhere else. This foundation base here is all made to level to the ground that it matches. So within a four degree slope, it has hinges on each end to get it level. You gotta, ground generally slopes for drainage. And so that's factored into all that. So it's, it's trying to pre-think a lot of the basic things that go wrong with structures. Here you see some of the basic drawings of, it's just seven parts to make this core structure. 10,000 dollars for half material, half labor to fabricate this. So it's a really efficient way to make a structure with these just two by two, two be their steel. And again, you're thinking of 3D printing, when you... Yeah, there's definitely some parts. I mean, right now it's definitely cheaper to make a two by two giant S shape member out of just two be their steel that you weld up. There's no way to compete, but that's a very low cost sort of way. But there's other parts where we could add a lot to it, maybe in the hinge area, in the roof area, maybe in the foundation piece. And then over time, as the cost of 3D printing becomes as low as anything, then it could, anything can happen. Yeah, and speaking of dollars, I understand that there's a major, major foundation that might be interested in you. I mean, there's all kinds of interesting things out there. There's the Breakthrough Energy Fund is one that's come out recently, but there's a lot of movement around the green space. And... Absolutely, yeah. Actually doing something about it, making decisions not based just on the pure financial return, but more social and ecological return. Well, to talk about the need for housing, we are a first world country, or Hawaii is a first world state, but the need for housing is just aching out there. And we've been trying to realize that in fits and starts in very expensive ways. Yeah, I think we've found that there's, we need different ideas besides status quo type structure. But a lot of those status quotes are driven by building codes, right? So I'm not ignorant to any of that, but there's also changes that can happen over time in a stepwise manner. Well, I'm a building code guy myself. I can say that building codes are flexible, they are dynamic, you just have to meet the basic health and safety issues. And then you're pretty well free to go from there if you can persuade the officials. Right, we try to always think about that from the start. You know, I'm a licensed engineer and I'm a licensed architect. People working on it that know the basic science and the basic requirements and regulations. And so that's a really critical part that at the end it's based on reality and not fiction. Which is why I really like the fact that you guys personally, your team, you're gonna do what I call get dirt under your fingernails. Oh yeah, you gotta get dirty. You look at a lot of innovations, there are things it's just, you think of it and then you do it and you physically do it. And that's the way it advances. Cause there's no one else that really understands exactly why that is. Like, so it's hard to convince to do things. It's best to sometimes do it yourself. Yep, absolutely. Thomas Edison being the best example of that. But we could go on and on, but we can't go on and on because it's time to close, think, take away, code green, my esteemed guest, Nathan Toothman, revolutionary and everything else. And I certainly wish you all the best, Nathan. I mean, this could be the start of something really, really big. I'm thinking of homeless shelters, the whole business, and the possibilities are endless.