Could Prefab Modular Housing Finally Take Off in the Bay Area?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 23 January 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Building homes in factories can save money and time – so why has prefabricated housing struggled to gain traction in the U.S.? Scandinavian countries use it for more than 40% of their housing production, whereas in the U.S. it’s less than 4%, according to a 2023 report from consulting firm McKinsey. The Bay Area has produced some big winners and losers in the prefab space. In the past decade alone, several startups launched amid fanfare only to shutter and fail to deliver housing at scale. But, other developers and manufacturers are making a dent in the housing market. Vallejo-based Factory OS has delivered close to 3,000 homes in the last five years and can now build up to 1,000 units per year. We’ll talk about why prefabricated housing remains a promising, but challenging piece of the housing production pie. Guests: Nick Gomez, principal; director of modular design and construction, AO Architects Rick Holliday, co-founder, Holliday Development and Factory OS; co-founder, Eden Housing; co-founder, BRIDGE Housing Dave Dauphinais, associate partner, McKinsey & Co. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:32.1	From KQED.
0:33.1	Thank you. From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:48.5	While so many things have become more efficient to produce and cheaper to buy. With houses, it's kind of the opposite.
0:56.3	Amidst all the technological changes of the last decades, houses and apartment buildings
1:01.0	still get built on-site by a team of different people, as has been done for decades.
1:06.4	Modular or prefab housing is an idea that many people over time have come to believe could revolutionize building.
1:12.6	And it is possible.
1:14.6	Scandinavian countries use it for 40% of their housing production.
1:18.6	So, what's holding up building houses in factories, especially when we have this crisis in affordability?
1:24.6	That's all coming up next after this news.
1:41.9	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. This morning we're talking prefab housing. That is to say,
1:45.7	housing units, built in factories. It's been a tough business historically,
1:50.8	even though in theory there could be enormous efficiencies that could be captured by factory production. At least one Bay Area company has been making it work. Vallejo-based Factory OS has
1:56.9	delivered close to 3,000 homes in the last five years. It can now build up to a thousand units a year, and we're joined this morning first by co-founder
2:03.1	of Factory OS, as well as Holiday Development and Bridge Housing.
2:07.0	Rick Holiday, welcome.
	...

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