Abbie Flury, a recent graduate of Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell welding program, drove the first nail in a ceremony commemorating the beginning of BiltWise Structures off-site construction at the newly repurposed factory in the former Millennium Transit Services LLC. building, as a press release on June 7 states.

According to the Roswell Daily Record archives, Millennium owned the large industrial buildings where commercial passenger buses were built for the New Jersey Transit Authority and other government agencies from 2003 until 2008, having bought the building and other assets from Nova BUS. Millennium went through Chapter 11 proceedings starting in 2008, exiting in about 2011.

Public hearings and the sale of 45 acres of land at the Roswell Air Center, 42 W. Earl Cummings Loop, were announced earlier this year during Roswell City Council meetings. The agendas were published in the Roswell Record. In it, the company ARK Prefab LLC., which also does business as Turnkey Venture, was listed as buyer. The project is a collaboration between Turnkey Venture and BiltWise Structures.

According to the city council, published March 17, the business venture is anticipated to provide 330 jobs during the next five years. Its owners intend to make approximately $12 million worth of long-term improvements.

The press release says that the First Nail ceremony marks the start of construction and transformation of the Millennium Building, bringing new life to this historic site.

It continues with a quote by Mayor Timothy Jennings praising the event as a major advancement for Roswell. BiltWise Structures will create good-paying jobs and valuable opportunities for the people of Roswell, as well as develop affordable homes for the entire Southwest region. Im especially excited about the focus on opportunities for women, who comprise up to 50% of the workforce in other facilities, he said.

BiltWise Structures Chief Operating Officer Kevin Halliday stated that this first nail celebration would mark the beginning of the companys efforts to create high-quality homes and bring high-wage jobs to Roswell. We're grateful for the warm welcome we've received from the community and look forward to getting to work.

Jim Mitchell, president and owner of MAC Real Estate Inc., is one of the developers of The Oaks and Bella Piazza, large subdivisions in northwest Roswell. He is quoted in the press release as saying, We are excited to play a part in bringing BiltWise Structures and the many jobs they will provide to Roswell. We've toured many factories around the U.S., and the BiltWise product is far superior to anything else we've seen. Bella Piazza and The Oaks are glad to be the anchor projects for BiltWise in New Mexico and the American Southwest.

The initial build will feature a home for the Bella Piazza subdivision, valued at approximately $349,000. Following Bella Piazza, The Oaks Unit 7 is being replatted for higher density and smaller homes, which will be in the $270,000 range.

Read this article:
'First Nail' celebration of new modular home builder - Roswell Daily Record

As an architect, Ivan Rupnik thinks the solution to Americas affordable housing shortage is obvious: Build more houses. Start today. But the way homes are built in the United States makes speed impossible.

Years ago, Rupniks Croatian grandmother, an architect herself, pointed him to an intriguing answer to this conundrum: modular housing projects built in Europe in the 1950s and 60s. Rupnik was awed. Sure, prefab complexes, and especially Soviet bloc housing, could be ugly and too homogenous, but the process created millions of housing units in a flash.

Hooked, Rupnik started researching modular housing for his doctoral dissertation. In the archives of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he stumbled upon a reference in an old journal article that took him by surprise: an industrialized housing initiative called Operation Breakthrough that built nearly 3,000 units between 1971 and 1973 in the United States. How had he never heard about it?

It turned out few people had. Unable to find much more information, Rupnik turned to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, which created the program. In 1969, when Operation Breakthrough was announced, HUD was less than four years old and affordable housing was still a bipartisan issue. The plans visionary, HUD Secretary George Romney, a former Republican governor and Nixon appointee (and, yes, Mitts father) pitched it as Economics 101: If you quickly increase the supply of housing, you drive down the price for all.

Romney said the country needed to build 26 million houses in 10 years, almost three times as many as had been built in the previous 10. Industrializing construction, he argued, was the only way to do it.

While nearly every other industry has become more productive since 1968, productivity in home-building the amount of work done by one worker in one hour, essentially has declined by half. The country is barely building enough to maintain the status quo, which is some four million units short of need, according to Freddie Mac. In the coming years, with population growth, climate change and the natural deterioration of housing stock, well only need more.

See the article here:
How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden - The New York Times

The Potential of Advanced Modular Housing Design for Post-Disaster Housing

Natural disasters often create an acute and urgent need for affordable temporary housing units to accommodate displaced households as they and their communities recover. When a disaster strikes, the ability to supply temporary housing quickly is critical, especially for vulnerable households. HUD funded a University of Florida project to design rapidly deployable modular homes that are resilient, sustainable, and affordable and can be used as temporary or permanent housing. The research team designed blueprints for units called Advanced Modular Housing (AMH) consisting of three types of units: the Core, Space, and Dwell units. The research team incorporated the feedback of industry stakeholders, including modular home manufacturers, to design the final units. These designs can withstand natural disasters common to the southeastern United States.

The Core unit is designed to be deployed in the immediate aftermath of a disaster and incorporates the essential housing functions of a kitchen, bathroom, laundry area, and sleeping loft. The 160-square-foot unit can be delivered quickly to a temporary or permanent site post-disaster. The Core unit can withstand rain and high winds in high-risk areas and is rigid and hardened so that it can be installed on various foundation types. The structure combines light-gauge metal framing, sheathing, and closed-cell foam insulation. The Space unit can be either deployed alongside the Core unit or added to the Core later. The Space unit is 193 square feet and can be configured as a den, sleeping porch, or bedroom. Unlike the Core unit, the Space unit is wind resistant but not hardened, so it must be supported by the foundation. Finally, the Dwell unit is a 794-square-foot unit that can be delivered on a temporary chassis and, when combined with the Core and Space units, brings the overall area of the home to 1,147 square feet. The Dwell unit includes three full bedrooms and a full bathroom.

The Core, Space, and Dwell modular units (Core+) are designed to address sustainability, resiliency, and affordability. The modular units incorporate climate-responsive and passive energy strategies to achieve hyper energy efficiency, and they can readily accept solar and wind renewable-energy systems. AMH addresses resiliency through structural strength that meets or exceeds Florida's building code requirements for wind loading, systems to mitigate extended power failures, and an adaptable piling system that alters the structure's elevation to accommodate the site's risk profile. Finally, AMH addresses affordability through the savings achieved by employing a factory-built, modular manufacturing process that reduces labor costs; shortens building time; uses low-cost, durable, and energy-efficient materials; and avoids weather-related construction delays, an especially important consideration in post-disaster situations in which the building site likely is still recovering. AMH's sustainability, resiliency, and affordability make it an attractive option not only for temporary post-disaster housing but also for permanent housing in light of worsening affordability in Florida.

Through this project, the research team developed a scalable design and associated construction documents, including blueprints for the Core, Space, and Dwell units and information for solar installation and energy storage system integration, and produced a life-cycle cost analysis. The research offers a viable pathway for developing rapidly deployable post-disaster housing that meets urgent and ongoing needs for resilience, sustainability, and affordability.

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The Potential of Advanced Modular Housing Design for Post-Disaster Housing | HUD USER - HUD User

A family on Fort Myers Beach is building a modular home after Hurricane Ian wrecked their home. But forget what you think you know about construction, there is a new and affordable way many are choosing to rebuild.It was a 1965 little cinder block house, and it completely imploded," said Charlie Hornfeck. He and his wife Leslie moved into their home years before Ian hit.The Hornfecks could never have imagined this would happen to their home on Fort Myers Beach.Standing on top of a pile of rubble a year ago," Charlie said.They went back through the bad memories, recollecting a time when they could barely recognize their slice of paradise.Our house wasnt even as high as the storm surge, so it didnt stand a chance -- it was underwater completely," they said.The Hornfecks said many of their neighbors on Jefferson Street suffered the same fate. The damage was great, but their drive to recover was greater.We knew that we would rebuild and that it would be fast," Leslie said.Here we are a year later, and things look a little different for Charlie and Leslie.The permitting took a little over three weeks," Idyll Construction owner Mark Raudenbush said.The couple partnered with Raudenbush to build a new home.These homes are more energy efficient, more storm efficient, they will create better capacity for families to be here on the beach," Raudenbush said.But this rebuild looks a little different.It is a new beginning for the island and its a new beginning for my customers and my family," he said.Raudenbush works with a company that creates modular homes.Think of these houses like a giant puzzle, or a Lego piece. It is assembled piece by piece. Instead of building everything on-site, workers create sections of the home in a factory. Once the sections are ready, they are delivered to the actual building site and put together. Weve got about 28 of them right now planned on the island and Ive been talking to some people today that are probably going to get on board with it as well," Raudenbush said.There are two reasons why the homeowners went with this option. They told ABC7 that the first is affordability, the cost of this modular home is about a third of what conventional construction would cost. The second is the speed. It took crews less than six minutes to put up just a quarter of this home.The crew came in this morning at about 7 oclock and started setting up and now here we are at 1 oclock and weve got a full three-bedroom two-bath home on the site," Raudenbush said.The house fits together like Lego pieces, with cranes lifting the four pieces in place on top of the foundation. The entire operation took just under seven hours.Its very exciting," Charlie said. "Very exciting to watch those pieces swing into place. Its awesome.Raudenbush said building the house and laying down the foundation took the same amount of time as it took to build this house.It took us about two weeks to get the foundation built," he said. "Meanwhile, the actual construction of the house in the factory was 21 days.The owners did not have to deal with supply chain shortages, however, there is still a little bit of work to be done.It will take about four to six weeks to finish the on-site work," Raudenbush said. "Weve got some stucco work some drywall work and finishing out the mating of these four sections, and the house into one home.But after that short amount of time, the doors to this home will be open in March.People can come by and see if it is something that they might want to do and hopefully that will also help with rebuilding the island back faster," Leslie said.And in case of another hurricane, this home should still be standing afterward.Its built to code now and this construction can withstand 180 mph winds," Charlie said.It's thanks to this new method of construction that the Hornfecks and dozens of other families will be able to keep their homes.Coming back better, stronger, and safer than they were before.

A family on Fort Myers Beach is building a modular home after Hurricane Ian wrecked their home. But forget what you think you know about construction, there is a new and affordable way many are choosing to rebuild.

It was a 1965 little cinder block house, and it completely imploded," said Charlie Hornfeck.

This content is imported from YouTube. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

He and his wife Leslie moved into their home years before Ian hit.

The Hornfecks could never have imagined this would happen to their home on Fort Myers Beach.

Standing on top of a pile of rubble a year ago," Charlie said.

They went back through the bad memories, recollecting a time when they could barely recognize their slice of paradise.

Our house wasnt even as high as the storm surge, so it didnt stand a chance -- it was underwater completely," they said.

The Hornfecks said many of their neighbors on Jefferson Street suffered the same fate. The damage was great, but their drive to recover was greater.

We knew that we would rebuild and that it would be fast," Leslie said.

Here we are a year later, and things look a little different for Charlie and Leslie.

The permitting took a little over three weeks," Idyll Construction owner Mark Raudenbush said.

The couple partnered with Raudenbush to build a new home.

These homes are more energy efficient, more storm efficient, they will create better capacity for families to be here on the beach," Raudenbush said.

But this rebuild looks a little different.

It is a new beginning for the island and its a new beginning for my customers and my family," he said.

Raudenbush works with a company that creates modular homes.

Think of these houses like a giant puzzle, or a Lego piece. It is assembled piece by piece. Instead of building everything on-site, workers create sections of the home in a factory. Once the sections are ready, they are delivered to the actual building site and put together.

Weve got about 28 of them right now planned on the island and Ive been talking to some people today that are probably going to get on board with it as well," Raudenbush said.

There are two reasons why the homeowners went with this option. They told ABC7 that the first is affordability, the cost of this modular home is about a third of what conventional construction would cost.

The second is the speed. It took crews less than six minutes to put up just a quarter of this home.

The crew came in this morning at about 7 oclock and started setting up and now here we are at 1 oclock and weve got a full three-bedroom two-bath home on the site," Raudenbush said.

The house fits together like Lego pieces, with cranes lifting the four pieces in place on top of the foundation. The entire operation took just under seven hours.

Its very exciting," Charlie said. "Very exciting to watch those pieces swing into place. Its awesome.

Raudenbush said building the house and laying down the foundation took the same amount of time as it took to build this house.

It took us about two weeks to get the foundation built," he said. "Meanwhile, the actual construction of the house in the factory was 21 days.

The owners did not have to deal with supply chain shortages, however, there is still a little bit of work to be done.

It will take about four to six weeks to finish the on-site work," Raudenbush said. "Weve got some stucco work some drywall work and finishing out the mating of these four sections, and the house into one home.

But after that short amount of time, the doors to this home will be open in March.

People can come by and see if it is something that they might want to do and hopefully that will also help with rebuilding the island back faster," Leslie said.

And in case of another hurricane, this home should still be standing afterward.

Its built to code now and this construction can withstand 180 mph winds," Charlie said.

It's thanks to this new method of construction that the Hornfecks and dozens of other families will be able to keep their homes.

Coming back better, stronger, and safer than they were before.

Read the original post:
Fort Myers Beach family rebuilds with quick and affordable modular home after Hurricane Ian - ABC7 News

The world faces an increasing shortage of housing and an escalating climate emergency. These urgent global issues call for quick action and innovative solutions.

The numbers show us how stark things are. Construction activities and building operations produce more than 40% of the carbon emissions driving global warming.

At the same time, 1.6 billion people live in subpar housing. An alarming 100 million have no house at all. In both Australia and globally, the housing crisis is a pressing and unresolved issue.

Prefabricated building technology offers promising alternative solutions to this dual crisis. Prefab housing modules are made offsite in a factory. The finished components/modules can then be transported and assembled swiftly at the site of the building.

This approach could transform the housing scene. Affordable dwellings could be produced on a massive scale, while greatly reducing the environmental impacts.

This is not merely about building homes. A shift to prefab construction would be a strategic move in line with the Paris Agreement to mitigate climate change.

Read more: The world needs to build more than two billion new homes over the next 80 years

Prefab modular construction could be considered a greener alternative in the construction sector. By greatly reducing construction waste (which accounts for 40% of landfill) and carbon emissions, it tackles these major environmental concerns head-on. A 2022 study showed modular construction can slash carbon emissions by up to 45% compared to conventional techniques.

The controlled factory-based environment of prefab construction makes it more efficient. This includes integrated reclamation and recycling of construction waste.

This approach is highly cost-effective. Its about being resource-savvy and reducing waste to the bare minimum.

Read more: Turning the housing crisis around: how a circular economy can give us affordable, sustainable homes

Using standardised designs and components on a large scale also cuts the cost of incorporating energy-efficient elements such as better insulation and renewable energy. Building in this way creates structures that are effective, efficient, resilient and help us combat climate change.

Among many possible construction materials, wood or timber is among the most preferred for prefab modular buildings. Timber is renewable and an efficient carbon sink. The timber in buildings locks away the CO the trees absorbed from the atmosphere when they were growing.

One creative and sustainable solution to housing shortages is to build modular, adjustable prefab dwelling units. These units are robust and can be adapted to various climates and housing needs with ease.

In a world where cities are growing fast and housing needs are pressing, prefab construction can deliver quality, affordable homes at an impressive pace. Its an efficient solution for a budget-conscious, carbon-constrained world.

The beauty of prefab construction lies in its adaptability, making it the building industrys chameleon.

It can look good almost anywhere, from bustling cityscapes to serene countryside. Imagine a building technique that can seamlessly transition from a cozy mountain cabin to a stylish metropolitan apartment building.

Read more: Not just daggy dongas: time to embrace prefabricated buildings

Modular homes can be enlarged, modified or even disassembled and moved as communities grow and needs change.

This approach promotes long-term resilience by being adaptable to changes in the climate and housing needs. These buildings are constructed not only for the present, but also for the high-performance requirements of the future.

Read more: Prefab revolution? Factory houses are the secret to green building

We can learn from success stories overseas.

A community-focused project in England: the prefab modular homes in Cambridge are more than just buildings; they are community cornerstones. As well as providing roofs over heads, the project is about creating a sense of belonging. These units, meticulously designed and sustainably built, are shaping the narrative of affordable housing.

Scandinavian eco-friendly living: Scandinavians have taken modular construction to heart. In this region, known for its design prowess and environmental stewardship, many modular homes are architectural marvels that embody sustainability. Cozy, energy-efficient homes with sleek designs prove that eco-friendly living can be both stylish and functional.

Versatile modular solutions in the Netherlands: Finch Buildings offers a kaleidoscope of sustainable housing. Here, modular construction is about flexibility and diversity, catering to a range of needs and styles. These timber modular solutions can adapt to different lifestyles and preferences. Housing can be as diverse as the people it shelters.

Singapores urban blueprint: the city-state is a showcase for the incredible possibilities of prefab modular construction. Its seamlessly woven into urban planning. Imagine a city where buildings are not just structures, but pieces of a larger, sustainable puzzle. It is a model of how urban development can co-exist with environmental consciousness.

Australia has been slower than many countries to adopt prefab modular construction. The challenges include:

limited government support and incentives compared to other countries

a need for more training and expertise in designing and implementing prefab modular construction

the traditional procurement process in construction is not well suited for prefab methods, so a shift in thinking and approach from construction managers and suppliers is required

the Australian regulatory environment needs to evolve to promote productivity and support modern construction methods like prefabrication

a cultural shift within the industry is also needed, so owners and developers demand more sustainable and efficient construction methods.

The situation is changing in Australia as the housing crisis has intensified. Recognition of the need for more sustainable, efficient construction methods is growing, leading to a gradual shift in government support and industry adoption.

Read more: Building in the same old ways won't end the housing crisis. We need innovation to boost productivity

The potential role of prefab modular construction in tackling the challenges of climate change and housing shortages cannot be overstated.

Prefab building is charming not just because it is flexible but also because the architectural features have been thoughtfully considered. Every module can be carefully crafted to complement its surroundings.

Adopting this strategy demonstrates a dedication to development that is ecologically conscious, promotes resilience and sustainability and, by meeting house needs, improves community wellbeing.

Link:
A prefab building revolution can help resolve both the climate and housing crises - The Conversation Indonesia

Vertically Integrated Modular Housing Project Opens in Auburn, Washington

Blokable at Phoenix Rising, a vertically integrated 12-unit affordable modular housing development in Auburn, Washington, opened in 2020. Modular homes are mass-produced, prefabricated residential structures that can be combined with other modules or permanent fixtures onsite to form single- or multifamily dwellings. Blokable, a Seattle-based manufacturer of modular homes, developed Phoenix Rising as its prototype multifamily building. Adopting a modular construction process generated considerable time, cost, and energy savings.

Creating a Prototype Modular Community

Unlike most modular manufacturers, who sell their products to developers, Blokable uses a vertical integration process that allows the company to control the entire development process, including site selection, assembly, and financing. After developing single-module accessory dwelling units (ADUs), the firm was ready to build a small multiunit development as the next step in the product development process. "This generation of prototype was basically the step between building ADUs and then building full five-story engineering," explained Aaron Holm, who along with co-CEO Nelson del Rio led the development of Blokable's fully integrated process.

Blokable drove the entire development process for Blokable at Phoenix Rising, handling the permitting, inspections, financing, assembly, logistics, and transportation. After working with the King County Assessor's Office to find available space, Blokable contracted with Valley Cities Behavioral Health Care to build a prototype multifamily residence. Valley Cities owns both the resulting apartments and the quarter-acre building site. Blokable initially intended to apply for funding from a state program supporting innovative development methods. However, because Blokable was a design-build developer, it could not respond to the state's request for proposals because only teams consisting of architects, developers, and general contractors were eligible to respond. To receive state funding, a state legislator had to add an earmark to Valley Cities in the state capital budget to fund this project. This unconventional production strategy created other complexities, such as determining the applicable rules and regulations as well as the builders' wages, because manufacturing and architecture are separate industries with very different pay scales. After a few years of financial and administrative delays, Blokable at Phoenix Rising opened in December 2020 at a cost of $1.5 million.

Twelve Prefabricated Apartments

Blokable assembled the all-steel modules in its manufacturing plant in Vancouver, Washington. Complete with floors, windows, and appliances, the modules were transported nearly 150 miles by truck to the site, where they were assembled into two buildings: one with five units and one with seven units. Only the roofing was constructed on site.

The modules, which have a useful life of 50 to 100 years, are all electric and net-zero ready. Their tight building envelope minimizes the energy expended for heating and cooling. Residents of Phoenix Rising pay about 60 percent less for air conditioning and heating their units and 30 percent less for utilities than do residents of standard new units. The units have an energy-recovery ventilation system that filters outdoor air and exhausts stale air outside. This system helps limit exposure to bacteria, mold, and other unhealthy air particles. The tight building envelope also minimizes outdoor sounds.

Five of the apartments are 280-square-foot studios and seven are one-bedroom apartments that are 340 square feet. The units include kitchens and living areas and have dimmable cove lighting. All the apartments are reserved for residents who earn between 30 and 50 percent of the area median income. Blokable at Phoenix Rising is near amenities, services, and job opportunities in Auburn and the greater Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area. The development is also a few miles from a commuter rail station that offers direct links to downtown Seattle, downtown Tacoma, and other suburbs.

A Cost-Effective Strategy

At approximately $125,000 per unit, the project cost significantly less than a typical site-built residential development in King County would. One reason for the lower cost was the project's shortened development timeframe. Unlike traditional onsite construction, modular production is a standardized and repeatable process. In addition, factory production requires significantly less architecture and engineering services than does standard construction. The streamlined development process and reduced need for specialized services significantly lowered labor costs. The project's tight building envelope also reduced the amount of material waste, because the materials do not need to be sent to the site before being cut to fit.

Holm explained how Blokable will produce future modular developments more quickly and efficiently. "We took a lot longer building Phoenix Rising than we [will] on subsequent projects because we took a lot of time to specifically document the process so that we could make it more repeatable and drive costs down. This is a model that substantially reduces the per-door cost basis to bring new housing to the market." Blokable now has a standardized manufacturing, assembly, and attachment process, and many of the structural components are preengineered. In addition, developing a standardized, preapproved product simplifies the approval process because the structure already meets local regulatory requirements.

Although modular development is nearly always less expensive than site-built construction, Holm believes that the vertical integration model is by far the most cost-effective construction method. Currently, most manufacturers sell modules to developers when the "product" is at its lowest possible value, which adds a middleman and limits incentives for modular production. When the manufacturer also acts as the developer, however, these producers can increase profits while also reducing costs for residents. "The incentive for factory production in the real estate context is for vertical integration and [for] the developer to realize the upside in the form of appreciating real estate equity, not to sell it as a productized asset," Holm said. He explained that this model can yield 30 times the profit over a 10-year period compared with modular "products" that are sold as a construction "input" to the development process.

Prospects

Blokable is preparing to mass-produce multifamily apartments in several states. Blokable's product is designed to meet many of the strongest state codes in the country. The structures can be up to four stories tall in areas that experience heavy snow and up to five stories tall in earthquake-prone areas such as California, which has the strictest seismic requirements in the nation. These buildings are also designed to withstand winds of up to 160 miles per hour.

Modular homes are becoming increasingly popular in the United States because of their financial, environmental, and time-saving benefits. Although regulatory and financial barriers to modular and other prefabricated housing persist, some state and local governments have been easing restrictions. For example, shortly after Blokable at Phoenix Rising opened, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries began allowing third-party engineers and architects to review modular development plans, simplifying the administrative approval process. Holm remains optimistic that modular development using a vertically integrated process will become increasingly common. However, financial and regulatory restructuring will be necessary for factory production to replace traditional construction in the residential market.

Interview with Aaron Holm, 10 October 2023.

Interview with Aaron Holm, 10 October 2023; email correspondence with Aaron Holm, 20 November 2023.

Interview with Aaron Holm, 10 October 2023.

See the original post:
Vertically Integrated Modular Housing Project Opens in Auburn, Washington | HUD USER - HUD User

(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)

There's a new house on the east side of Lansing that city officials hope will lead the way for attainable housing in the area.

"It's a way to see if this is one of the many solutions that's needed for the housing crisis," Alan Fox Ingham County Treasurer.

On what used to be two vacant lots on the east side of Lansing now sits Ingham county's first-ever modular home thanks to the Ingham County Landbank

"This is a house that will fit into the neighborhood beautifully. It's about the same size as other houses. It's two story's and the particular design was picked because it will not stand out in this neighborhood," Fox said.

Allen Fox is the Ingham County Treasurer and the chair of the Ingham County Housing Trust Fund.

He says this new home is a part of an experiment to help the housing shortage in the area.

"We wanted to see if they were usable. And affordable to get moderate-income housing into the city. And the state of Michigan had some funds available to try it out," Fox said.

Fox says the house will be sold to a new homeowner at a rate of cost that is subsidized by public money in order to make it affordable.

"So it contributes to increase in home ownership. And it it contributes to having just one more housing unit in the community. That relieves the housing shortage," Fox said.

Dejuan Lewis and his wife Jennifer have lived in the area for years and says they are happy to see changes in their neighborhood.

"Previously, there used to be two houses there and then over the years, they demolish them and there was a garden in there at one point in time that community garden and then now seeing a big house come in it's nice," Jennifer said.

"I will say it's not much to look at over here but you know, the people are real nice. The kids are nice, they come on and they play over here in the backyard with our trampoline. It's nice to add to the community. So I'm all for it," Dejuan said.

Fox says the energy-efficient house is expected to be ready for occupancy by spring of 2024 and this won't be the last that we see of these homes.

"There's going to be another one going up elsewhere in the city later this year," Fox said.

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First ever modular home in Ingham County placed on the eastside of Lansing - FOX 47 News Lansing - Jackson

In 1969, the federal government announced that it would hand out millions of dollars in subsidies to companies willing to try something new: build houses in factories.

Then as now, America was in the throes of a housing crisis. There werent enough places to live. Mass production provided Americans with abundant and cheap food, clothing, cars and other staples of material life. But houses were still hammered together by hand, on site. The federal initiative, Operation Breakthrough, aimed to drive up the production of housing and to drive down the cost by dragging the building industry into the 20th century.

It didnt work. Big companies, including Alcoa and General Electric, designed new kinds of houses, and roughly 25,000 rolled out of factories over the following decade. But none of the new home builders long survived the end of federal subsidies in the mid-1970s.

Last year, only 2 percent of new single-family homes in the United States were built in factories. Two decades into the 21st century, nearly all U.S. homes are still built the old-fashioned way: one at a time, by hand. Completing a house took an average of 8.3 months in 2022, a month longer than it took to build a house of the same size back in 1971.

Federal housing policy in the decades since the failure of Operation Breakthrough has focused myopically on providing financial aid to renters and homeowners. The government needs to return its attention to the supply side. Opening land for development, for example by easing zoning restrictions, is part of the answer, but reducing building costs could be even more constructive. Land accounts for roughly 20 percent of the price of a new house; building costs account for 60 percent. (The price of land is a larger factor in coastal cities like New York, but a vast majority of new housing in the United States is built on cheap land outside cities.)

The tantalizing potential of factory-built housing, also known as modular housing, continues to attract investors and entrepreneurs, including a start-up called Fading West that opened a factory in 2021 in the Colorado mountain town of Buena Vista. But Fading West, and similar start-ups in other parts of the country, need government help to drive a significant shift from handmade housing to factories. This time, there is reason to think it could work.

On a windy morning last month, I watched as wooden platforms the size of train cars moved down the Fading West assembly line, advancing to a new station every few hours as workers added walls and windows, wiring and insulation, dishwashers and cabinets. The finished boxes are trucked to building sites and swung into place by cranes. Houses consist of two to four boxes. Once theyre knitted together, the result looks like a traditional home.

Charlie Chupp, the chief executive, previously ran a company that built and shipped all the pieces of new stores for Starbucks, Einstein Bros. Bagels and other restaurant chains. Fading West is seeking to apply a similar model to building homes and apartments. We see ourselves as being in manufacturing, not construction, says Eric Schaefer, a former pastor who is now the companys chief evangelist, bending the ear of politicians, reporters and developers about the potential benefits of mass production and the changes necessary to support it.

Final assembly happens so quickly that it almost seems like a magic trick. In Poncha Springs, a town 30 minutes south of Buena Vista, I watched as a crane swung a 19,894-pound box over a concrete foundation. A worker on each corner checked the fit while two more waited in the basement to connect it to the foundation. As it was secured, a truck arrived with the next box.

The team of eight workers has sometimes assembled four houses in a single day.

Joanna Schwartz, the chief executive of Quartz Properties, which is using Fading Wests boxes to build the homes, said buyers sometimes come to see the show. They didnt have a house in the morning and then in the afternoon they can walk through it, she said.

Fading West says houses from its factory can be completed in as little as half the time and at as little as 80 percent of the cost of equivalent handmade homes, in part because the site can be prepared while the structure is built in the factory. A 2017 analysis by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, found similar savings for the construction of three- to five-story apartment buildings using modular components.

Factory building has other advantages, too. It can reduce waste, maintain higher standards of consistency and produce homes that are more energy efficient. It is not subject to rain delays.

It also offers a solution to the home-building industrys growing problems finding enough qualified workers, especially in high-cost areas. Manufacturers like Fading West can build where labor is cheaper and then ship homes to the places where people want to live.

But there are good reasons modular housing has remained the next big thing for a long time.

One basic problem is that houses are large objects, and unlike cars or airplanes, they are not designed to move. The result is that the savings from factory production are partly offset by the cost of transportation. (Some companies reduce transportation costs by shipping homes in smaller pieces, an approach pioneered by Sears and other retailers of build your own home kits in the early 20th century, but that just shifts the cost from transportation to assembly.)

The volatility of the housing market is also a problem. Traditional home builders rely on contract workers who are easily dismissed during downturns. Factory builders, which have high fixed costs, tend to go bankrupt. Housing downturns have ended a long line of ambitious and well-funded efforts to create the Model T of the housing industry. In 2006, on the cusp of the most recent housing crash, factory builders produced more than 70,000 homes. Since the crisis and the resulting wipeout, annual production has not exceeded 30,000 houses.

Neither volatility nor transportation costs might matter if factory home builders could match the efficiency gains found in other kinds of mass production. Brian Potter, a senior infrastructure fellow at the Institute for Progress, a nonpartisan think tank focused on technological innovation, gives the example of the Ford Taurus. Experimental models of the 1996 Taurus were built by hand, which cost almost half a million dollars per car. The car eventually retailed for less than $20,000.

Factory home builders have struggled to streamline construction. Mr. Potter spent several years looking for ways to make housing construction more efficient, an effort he narrated on a fascinating blog, before concluding that significant progress wasnt likely. Almost any idea that you can think of for a way to build a single-family home cheaper has basically been tried, and there was probably a company that went bankrupt trying to do it, Mr. Potter told me.

I think the history of the auto industry provides reason for more optimism. One lesson is that progress requires production at scale. There are a handful of car companies that each make millions of cars, and hundreds of home builders building a few hundred homes a year. Fading West, which aims to produce as many as 1,000 homes a year, says that isnt enough to justify investments in automation.

Efficiency gains also come from doing the same thing over and over again, but the idiosyncrasies of local building codes make that impossible. In Colorado alone, by Mr. Schaefers count, there are more than 300 distinct building codes, requiring adjustments for each new batch of homes. Fading West found that it had to use different roof designs for homes headed to the city of Fairplay and to a development just outside the city, because the county has stricter snow load regulations.

A sequel to Operation Breakthrough could help the industry overcome those challenges. The Canadian governments Rapid Housing Initiative is providing support for large-scale modular manufacturing by setting tight construction deadlines for affordable housing projects that obtain government funding, an approach the United States could emulate on an even larger scale.

The government also can push for the standardization of building materials and building regulations. Herbert Hoover, the great champion of industrial standardization, who during his years as commerce secretary in the 1920s worked successfully to establish uniform rules for products such as paving bricks, milk bottles and blackboards, argued that establishing consistent standards was the nearest thing to a free lunch. It would increase productivity, benefiting companies, workers and customers. Florida and California will always have somewhat different building codes, because hurricanes and earthquakes pose different challenges. But there is no reason for Colorado to have 300 different codes.

If it seems far-fetched that the government could revolutionize the home-building business, take a look at what sits on top of a growing number of American homes. The government has driven the spread and driven down the cost of solar panels through decades of investment and subsidies.

Its time to pay similar attention to the buildings underneath.

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