About Automated Builder

Automated Builder was a leading trade publication serving the industrialized and factory-built construction industries for more than four decades. The publication was founded in 1964 as Automation in Housing and adopted the name Automated Builder in August 1988.

Published under the direction of Don O. Carlson, Automated Builder became an important source of industry news, technical information, market data, and new ideas for manufacturers, suppliers, designers, builders, and others involved in industrialized construction.

Its coverage centered on manufactured and modular housing, panelized construction, structural building components, roof and floor trusses, wall panels, production equipment, automation, and emerging construction technologies. The magazine also followed the companies and industry organizations that helped shape these markets. Historical references show Automated Builder being used as an industry data source and covering component manufacturing and production technology well into the 2000s.

Automated Builder also played an important role in the structural building components industry. The Wood Truss Council of America, now SBCA, published Wood Words within Automated Builder before developing its own standalone publication.

Publication continued into the 2000s, leaving behind decades of reporting that documents the development of off-site construction from relatively labor-intensive manufacturing to increasingly sophisticated and automated production.

Today, AutomatedBuilder.com is being rebuilt as a digital archive of that history. As issues are located, preserved, and digitized, they will be added to this site, providing a searchable record of the people, companies, equipment, technologies, and ideas that helped shape industrialized construction.

The archive is a work in progress. Many issues remain to be located, and additional publications and historical materials will be added as they become available. Please reach out if you have any back issues or periodicals published by Automated Builder that we can add to this repository.