RSG 3-D’s Founder and CEO is Ken Calligar, investment banking veteran and former CEO of Sionix, which designs and constructs water treatment systems. It was through Calligar’s investment work that he came across Insteel Panelmex, RSG 3-D’s Mexico-based predecessor that had quietly hummed under the radar for more than two decades. Insteel Panelmex has provided the material, which it dubbed TridiPanel, to thousands of homes and commercial developments since its founding in 1991. Realizing its potential, Calligar acquired the company and formally launched RSG 3-D in 2018.

Whether you’re building or investing in a healthcare facility, an office building, a warehouse, a school, a data center, a cultural building or a mixed-use development, safety and durability are at the top of the list of necessary attributes. In the face of increasing threats from hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, floods and extreme temperatures, building scientists and architects employ design practices and new technology that demonstrate how human ingenuity can keep these significant real estate investments profitable and businesses operational.

When the smoke cleared after the devastating Tubbs Fire of 2017 in NorthernCalifornia, what remained was a haunting silence, and a pressing question: How can webuild homes that survive the next one? More than 5,600 structures were lost in thatfire, many in Santa Rosa, where entire neighborhoods were reduced to ash. Yet amidthe devastation, a handful of homes built with fire-resistant technologies stood firm.These were not futuristic bunkers or luxury compounds, they were normal homes, builtintentionally with abnormal resilience.

As climate change leads to more frequent and widespread wildfires, homebuyers, builders, and insurers are urgently seeking wildfire-resistant homes and climate-resilient construction strategies. Here’s how innovators are building safer, more sustainable communities in high-risk areas.

Ken Calligar, CEO of RSG 3-D, discusses a groundbreaking approach to fire-resistant and disaster-resilient construction. Their innovative system, which uses concrete sprayed over steel mesh surrounding insulation, has already proven its durability in real-world scenarios, including California’s Tubbs Fire. Could this technology redefine the future of construction in extreme environments like Dubai?

Calligar’s company built a home in Santa Rosa that survived the Valley Fire, a 2015 fire in Northern California, using the concrete panel system. It's featured prominently in marketing material. The only damage: The wood deck on the back of the house burned off and the garage doors melted.

Two homes in Napa County's Silverado area that are being rebuilt from the ashes of 2017 Atlas Fire have a secret weapon against destructive blazes of the future.

“Clearly, building products is not an emerging industry, but the shifting demands of customers, regional resilience needs, and upgrading codes is creating a giant disruptive phase”

Ultimately, the exceptional collaboration between the owners, the architects, and the design team shines through at Costa Palmas. “The inside and outside of the house are kind of seen as one, and that was the intention,” Guerin says. “In general, I think our architecture is clean and refined, and the pairing with JB was able to soften our work a little bit. Conversely, we added architectural rigor to some of his work. And I think it’s all a nice complement.”

In January 2020, we won an NAHB Global Innovation award, and it wasn’t really for the panel. It was for using the panel for affordable housing.

The fire consumed the hillside, charring trees and bushes and homes on its way to devastating 70,000 acres in northern California. But Sean Jennings’ house did not burn. Jennings says his house survived the Valley Fire of 2015 because it was not made of wood. When he’d built it five years earlier, Jennings instead used something called RSG 3-D panels

"RSG 3-D RESILIENCE ADU is a winner of the 2019 National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Global Innovation Award. Representatives for all three products were honored yesterday at the NAHB International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas."

"A futuristic building material is being touted by its manufacturer as the environmentally friendly and fire-resistant material California needs for a sustainable future."

"But another answer to the looming threat of wildfires is to construct homes that are resistant to flames, said Ken Calligar, the CEO of RSG 3- D, a company that manufactures building panels made of concrete and steel, which are noncombustible."

"When the panel system is used for a total building, its potential for fire safety, hurricane and seismic resistance si sumerior to virtually any otherstandard building system."

"Harrison Woodfield is one of a handful of Wine Country architects who refuses to design wooden homes in areas vulnerable to wildfire. Instead she favors noncombustible materials like RSG-3D, a thick fire-retardant foam panel sandwiched between wire mesh and coated on both sides with concrete."

"A traffic noise barrier along a thoroughfare in Santa Rosa, Calif., gives one glimpse of residential America’s fire-resistant future. The 8-foot-high wall stretches 1,550 feet along the Coffey Park subdivision, where embers from the 2017 Tubbs Fire jumped Highway 101 and destroyed 1,200 homes. The old wooden barrier went up in smoke too, replaced in 2019 by a more fire-resistant one consisting of polystyrene encased in stucco-covered concrete. Besides helping block traffic noise, the new wall will serve as a fire break that protects nearby homes from future infernos, says David Shew, former staff chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection."