The Logic Home: How a More Attainable GO Logic Home Came to Life
In early 2025, a question started circling inside GO Logic:
Could we design a home that feels like a GO Logic home, performs like a GO Logic home, but is meaningfully more attainable?
At the same time, our build crews were raising good questions of their own. What would it look like to build something designed from the ground up for panelization — fewer surprises, fewer site-specific workarounds, and more clarity from start to finish? And could that same clarity help bring the price point within reach for more people? The Logic Home grew out of that momentum: a shared desire to create a GO Logic home that stayed true to our standards, while making the process smarter and the outcome more attainable.
What follows is the story of how it came together: what we changed, what we refused to compromise, and why we chose to invest in building something new from the ground up.
From “10-Panel House” to the Logic House
The earliest version of this idea floated around under another name: the “10-panel house”.
The thought experiment was simple: What if we could design a complete shell using as few panels as possible? Fewer panels mean less handling, faster installs, less complexity, and ultimately, lower cost to build.
Meanwhile, another motivation was simmering in the background. Several people on the team wanted GO Logic homes to be within reach of more people. (Think younger families or downsizing retirees)
Inside the company, the phrase “low cost house” came up for a while. But it never sat right. This is not a low cost house. It is carefully designed, high performance, and still a significant investment. The real goal was attainability: a house that is more accessible than a fully bespoke home or a customized GO Home, while staying true to our standards.
That is why, as the design matured, the name Logic Home emerged and stuck. It is a house that takes the logic of panelization, performance, and real world budgets, and brings them together in a single, coherent model. (But don't worry, we have more designs up our sleeves for this line- stay tuned for larger and smaller Logic Homes.)
A Grassroots Idea Finds a Structure
Before the Logic Home became a formal project, there were informal conversations happening.
People were asking: Why can’t we do this for a lot less?
From a values perspective, that question was fair. Housing affordability is a real crisis. We want the kind of homes we build to feel less out of reach. From a financial perspective, Alan (GO Logic's principal), who lives with the P&L, knew some of the early numbers people were floating probably would not hold up.
Rather than shutting the idea down, we created a structured path for it: a new internal program we call Idea Teams. Anyone in the company could propose a project, assemble a small team, lay out a budget of hours and materials, and present a case for why it should move forward.
The early “more attainable house” concept came through that process as one of the proposals. It was not a side conversation anymore. It was a funded, time-bound project with a clear mandate: optimize a GO Logic home for panelization and cost, without compromising the core of who we are and what we deliver.
A Realistic Goal: 20 Percent Less, Not Half the Price
Internally, there were big hopes at the beginning. Some people genuinely wondered if we could cut the total cost of a home in half.
Alan set a different target: a 20 percent reduction compared to a comparable customized GO Logic home.
Roughly speaking, we expected that savings to come from two places:
About 10 percent from design simplification
A simpler form, fewer panel types, tighter finish and option sets- reducing front end design and engineering costs.
About 10 percent from efficiency
Panels optimized for manufacturing can be made faster and at a lower cost.
As the design progressed and we ran numbers, the reality landed where Alan expected. The Logic House is shaping up to be roughly 20 percent less expensive than a comparable custom GO Logic home.
At one point, we explored what it would really take to cut the cost in half. The answer confirmed what we already suspected: doing so would mean walking away from the core elements that define a GO Logic home, the mechanical systems, the exterior materials, the performance targets, and the lived-in comfort that sets our work apart. That’s not a trade we’re willing to make.
So we drew a line:
This will be more attainable, not “cheap”.
We will simplify, but we will not hollow out the performance or the experience.
Designing for Panelization From the First Sketch
Many of our existing designs were adapted into panels after the fact. The Logic Home is different. It was conceived from day one as a panelized object.
On the first floor, the walls are organized into just six large panels:
Two long side walls at the maximum length we can build in our shop, about 26 feet, and
Two end walls at about 24 feet wide.
That simplicity yields real benefits:
Fewer seams to manage
Faster, more predictable production in the shop
Cleaner setup and fewer crane picks on site
The roof went through a similar rethink. With the Logic Home, we designed a flat, panelized roof assembly that, while not 'New England traditional,' is the most efficient way to enclose space.
Our target is clear:
Previous typical install: about seven days on site
Logic House target: about four days on site, roofing on, fully enclosed
A Very Pretty Box
If you sketch the Logic Home's elevation, it looks like a box with a porch, and we say that with affection.
That simple volume is doing a lot of work:
It minimizes exterior surface area relative to interior volume.
It keeps the structure straightforward, reducing the need for expensive engineered lumber.
It makes panelization clean and repeatable.
There are a few key design moves worth calling out:
Flat roof: the most economical way to enclose space, and a natural fit for panelization.
Cantilevered porch corner: eliminating the corner post removed a footing, reduced field coordination, and simplified the panel design. It also opened up the space visually, creating a lighter, more welcoming entry that softens the box and adds a modern lift.
Optimized openings: we pulled windows up off the floor and kept them within panel-friendly zones, avoiding floor-to-ceiling glass that requires site installation into the shell. The result still delivers the bright, airy quality our homes are known for, without compromising light or simplicity.
Finishes: no downgrades here. The flooring, hardware, fixtures, and appliances all meet the same high bar as our GO Home line, keeping the experience and visual quality fully intact.
From the street, it has a modern, almost container like clarity. From the inside, it is more generous than the 1,250 square foot footprint suggests: three bedrooms, two full baths, a generous kitchen, and enough flexibility to work for a family or a couple who each want a home office plus a guest room.
Where We Refused to Compromise
During the process, we kept checking back against two core questions:
Does it still perform like a GO Home?
Does it still feel like a GO Home?
That led to a few non-negotiables:
High performance envelope
The Logic Home is designed to hit our typical Passive House level performance targets once modeling is complete.
Triple glazed wood windows
We install the same German tilt and turn wood units as are standard on the Go Home line. We did not swap to vinyl to chase a lower sticker price.
Mechanical systems
We kept the same level of mechanical performance and efficiency. Comfort, air quality, and resilience, including the ability to ride out a winter power outage, were not on the table for cutting.
Finish quality and aesthetic
The finishes and overall design language are consistent with our other homes. We narrowed options and removed customization, but we did not downgrade materials.
What we did give up:
Full customization
Floor-to-ceiling windows
Certain one-off structural and aesthetic elements that complicate panelization
What we gained:
A simpler, faster, more predictable build
A meaningful reduction in cost
A model we can refine and repeat, a more attainable GO Logic home without watering down our brand
Treating a House Like a Product
The Logic Home is also a shift in how we think about our work as a business.
Traditionally, every custom project bears the full financial and planning weight of its own design and engineering. The Logic Home is more like a scalable product:
We are investing heavily in the first iteration: design, engineering, detailing, and learning.
We expect Logic Home number one to be low margin, possibly close to break even.
We are planning to recoup that investment through houses two, three, four, and beyond, as we eliminate redundant design and engineering costs and gain speed in the shop and on site.
Practically, that means:
A very modest design fee, essentially a small entry fee to get started instead of a full custom design process.
No repeated structural engineering or shop drawing costs once the system is proven.
Compounding installation efficiencies as crews get familiar with the assembly.
It is closer to how a product company works than to a traditional custom architecture practice. And we think that is what it will take to make high performance housing more broadly attainable without compromising on performance, comfort, or integrity.
What Comes Next
The first Logic Home will tell us a lot: where the bottlenecks are, which details need refinement, and how closely our cost and schedule targets match reality.
We already know there is demand for variants, such as a smaller, roughly 900 square foot two bedroom version. Over time, we expect a small family of Logic Home models to emerge: tightly designed, panel optimized homes that keep GO Logic’s performance and design values intact while reaching a broader slice of buyers.
For now, the Logic Home represents something simple but important for us:
Listening to our team when they ask hard questions about access and price
Trusting them to take on a complex challenge
And proving that “more attainable” does not have to mean “lesser”. It can mean smarter.
If you are a homeowner, general contractor, or architect who wants to be part of that first wave of Logic Homes, we would love to talk. You can start by filling out our short Logic Home inquiry form here:
