MOD X’s Post

MOD X, in association with THEMA Studio, recently completed an immersive knowledge exchange event focused on industrialized wood-based construction in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy. Traveling with a global delegation of leading offsite experts from industry, government, non-profit, and academic sectors, MOD X Europe 2024 was jointly produced as a unique experiential learning tour that included visits to factories, warehouses, training centers, design centers, model homes, and completed projects. This region of Europe is recognized as one of the most innovative in the world for pioneering environmentally responsible industrialized wood-based construction and includes an abundance of leading manufacturers, many of which are 50-100+ year-old multigenerational family-owned operations. In concert with an extensive international network of offsite thought leaders, researchers, and industry practitioners, the MOD X team is performing ongoing comparative studies of industrialized construction programs and initiatives in highly developed markets around the world. Since 2018, MOD X has facilitated in-country investigative research and knowledge exchange events across the U.S., the UK (England, Scotland), Japan, Sweden, and Central Europe joined by international delegations. MOD X would like to thank all European event tour attendees and in-country hosts including Haas Fertigbau Deutschland, Baufritz GmbH & Co. KG, Pfeifer Group, Rubner Timber Engineering, Rothoblaas, Renggli AG, and WeberHaus for their generous hospitality and contributing to such an insightful learning experience by providing access to their production facilities and sharing unique historical perspectives on the future of industrialized offsite construction. These thought-provoking research trips would simply not be possible without the dedicated and perennial support of our invaluable network of collaborators from around the world that share a unified spirit of exchanging offsite knowledge and best practices across country borders. 🇩🇪 Germany 🇦🇹 Austria 🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇮🇹 Italy MOD X | Ryan E. Smith, PhD | Ivan Rupnik | Tyler Schmetterer Thema Studio | Tena Petrovic Christoph Marquardt | Xaver Haas | Daniel Griehl | Michael Pfeifer | Bernd Gusinde | Stefan Rubner | Markus Rubner | Martin Oberhofer | Daniel O. | Wolfgang Walcher | Florian Hitthaler | Davide Aiesi | Dominik Heiss | Robert Blaas | Hannes Blaas | Laura Dalvit | Loris Agostini | Francisco Rodríguez Bejarano | David E. Renggli | Michael Wyss | Dr. Manuel Schoenwitz | David Reuter | Melissa Penzel | Claudia Neeser | Ulf Rössler | Lena Feierabend | Ariane Hödl | Dagmar Fritz-Kramer #offsite #masstimber #offsiteconstruction #timberconstruction #knowledgeexchange #industrializedconstruction

We at MOD X have been pleasantly overwhelmed by the positive reception and media support our current research continues to receive. As part of a multi-year research grant to develop an Actionable Strategy for Accelerating U.S. Offsite Housing Construction for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) in partnership with the National Institute of Building Sciences, MOD X organized several international tour and exchange events that included delegations of leading offsite experts. During a MOD X research event in Sweden last summer, courtesy of an introduction by Chris Herbert from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, we were fortunate enough to be joined by a journalist from The New York Times to document the experience and capture the essence of the underlying research effort and tremendous progress the Swedish offsite construction industry has accomplished over the past 30 years since the country adopted a performance-based code. In Sweden, 45%+ of all construction is fully industrialized and ~85% of detached housing built offsite with the majority constructed in wood reducing carbon emissions to 20% vs. 40% for the global industry with some offsite factories amassing 30% female worker representation vs. < 15% in U.S. construction. Sweden has clearly become a shining example of what offsite construction can and should achieve when research, regulatory and political factors are properly aligned with industry. The MOD X research trips would not be possible without the dedicated and loyal support of our invaluable global network of partners from Sweden and around the world. We are extremely grateful for their continued support of our efforts to help evolve offsite construction in the U.S. to respond to the dual challenges of housing availability and climate change while filling crucial knowledge gaps to accelerate the adoption of innovative and effective practices and policies to increase the production and supply of quality, affordable, and sustainable housing. MOD X | Ivan Rupnik | Ryan E. Smith | Tyler Schmetterer Lindbäcks Bygg | Stefan Lindbäck | Joel Karlsson Forsberg | Helena Lidelöw | Jerker Lessing | Susanne Iverus Rudenstam | Ola Magnusson | Gustav Jansson | Alf Karlsson | Oskar Norelius | Sofia Hansdotter | Linda Andrén | Sandra Frank | Jessica Becker | Skellefteå kommun | Sveriges Träbyggnadskansli | Svenskt Trä/Swedish Wood | Boverket | Martinsons | RISE Research Institutes of Sweden | Luleå University of Technology | Sweden-US Green Transition Initiative | Takt Time Modular | The Wood Hotel by Elite | Sara kulturhus | Träinnovationsklustret i Skellefteå | Trä- och Möbelföretagen | Föreningen Trästad Sverige Solomon Greene | regina gray | Todd Richardson | Dan Hardcastle | Mike Blanford | Tanaya Srini | Mark Reardon, PhD | Jagruti Rekhi | U.S. Embassy Sweden https://lnkd.in/g4ZJrp6a

MOD X is excited to participate again in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2024 Innovative Housing Showcase in Washington, D.C. June 6-9, 2024. The Showcase is a public event to raise awareness of innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies that have the potential to increase housing supply, lower the cost of construction, increase energy efficiency and resilience, and reduce housing expenses for owners and renters. Ahead of the weekend exhibition on the National Mall, HUD is hosting educational programming at the District Architecture Center on June 6th and 7th. All programming is open to the public and will also be live-streamed. MOD X will be delivering a research-based presentation titled, "Scaling Offsite Construction for Housing: Supply, Affordability, Sustainability and Resilience" and moderating 3 related panel discussions with a distinguished group of industry, government, and non-profit offsite experts as follows: Panel 1: Regulatory Reform and System Certification for Offsite Housing Ivan Rupnik - Moderator | Bec Wilder (Chapin) | Vikas Enti | Mary Tingerthal Panel 2: Financing Construction of Offsite Housing Ryan E. Smith - Moderator | Michelle Boyd | Zeeshan Mirza | Cassandra Skidanov Panel 3: Sustainability and Resilience of Offsite Housing Tyler Schmetterer - Moderator | Jiqiu (JQ) Yuan, P.E., Ph.D., PMP | Stacey Rothgeb | Lucas Toffoli A detailed agenda for the educational programming and a registration link available via ihs.huduser.gov Solomon Greene | regina gray | Tanaya Srini | Mike Blanford #hud #offsite #offsiteconstruction #industrializedconstruction #affordablehousing

MOD X founding partner Ivan Rupnik will be moderating a panel at the Harvard Real Estate Symposium 2024 on April 20, 2024. The panel discussion will explore the evolving landscape of the construction industry focusing on how emerging technologies and sustainability are shaping its future. The panel will also address the surge in green building practices highlighting innovative materials and techniques that reduce environmental footprints including industrialized offsite construction. A critical discussion of cost considerations will examine how these new methods affect the affordability and economic viability of projects. Panel participants will include Andrew Lyons, Assistant Vice President, Project Advisory, The Vertex Companies LLC | Ardalan Khosrowpour, CEO, OnsiteIQ | Keir Evans, Vice President, Development | Boston Properties (BXP) Harvard University Graduate School of Design | Harvard Business School Ivan Rupnik | Ryan E. Smith | Tyler Schmetterer #offsite #offsiteconstruction #industrializedconstruction #affordablehousing #greenbuilding #sustainability #innovation https://lnkd.in/e39JcrDK

MOD X is pleased to support the research and strategy efforts of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and its leadership to help define HUD's current and future role in offsite housing delivery and fostering growth and advancement of the U.S. Industrialized Construction (IC) sector via the development of a national innovation framework. We applaud HUD's willingness to embrace learnings from U.S. history, industry players, and international offsite best practices to inform a future generational federal action plan. Message from HUD PD&R Senior Leadership Factory Built Housing: A New Age of Experimentation Todd Richardson, General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development "From February 6 to February 8, I met with innovative housing thinkers from Scotland, England, Ireland, Japan, Sweden, and various U.S. cities; academics; and colleagues from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and our own HUD team to tour U.S. factories that are completely or partially manufacturing homes. This trip was organized by the National Institute for Building Sciences (NIBS) and the research collaborative MOD X under a grant from the Office of Policy Development and Research that included similar factory tours in Sweden, Japan, and the United Kingdom. The goal was simple: to better understand offsite (factory-built) housing construction, identify barriers to its wider use in the United States, and explore whether this construction method could solve the conundrum of providing more resilient and energy efficient rental and homeowner housing at a cost that is affordable to more people. In short, can building homes in factories lead to better, more rapidly delivered, and cheaper housing in the United States? The answer is not yet — at least, not at scale. If this brief factory tour and conversation with industry experts is representative, the United States may be starting a new wave of experimentation, this time being driven by builders themselves. The federal government has a role to play in bettering our odds of being able to change that answer to "yes." The role of National Institute of Building Sciences and MOD X is to recommend ways in which the federal government can further that goal." Richardson concludes, "What is the lowest-hanging fruit that would benefit from a federal government nudge? I am looking forward to upcoming recommendations from NIBS and MOD X." Ryan E. Smith | Ivan Rupnik | Tyler Schmetterer #offsite #offsiteconstruction #industrializedconstruction #sustainablehousing #affordablehousing

MOD X is pleased to announce that we’ve been awarded an additional grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to support research that will fill crucial knowledge gaps and help build the evidence base to accelerate the adoption of innovative and effective practices and policies to increase the production and supply of quality, affordable housing. In partnership with the National Institute of Building Sciences (NIBS), MOD X partners will assume the role of Principal Investigators on a multi-year project collaboration with six (6) U.S. HUD regions to design breakthrough pilot programs that will (A) identify regional barriers to adoption of offsite construction (OSC), and (B) develop a strategic plan for OSC growth. The regional pilot programs will also provide the basis for a “HUD Breakthrough Pilot Handbook” that can support other regions across the nation to foster OSC capacity and encourage uptake. The research project addresses both of HUD’s NOFO priority research categories including (1) offsite construction methods, and (2) zoning and land-use reforms to increase affordable housing supply. Inspired by the pilot sites of HUD’s Operation Breakthrough (c. 1969), the project will build upon the experience of MOD X to address regional scale planning for fostering offsite housing growth in the U.S. and internationally. The six pilot projects represent distinct HUD regions including: (1) Region I. New England; (2) Region III. Mid-Atlantic; (3) Region V. Great Lakes; (4) Region VIII. Rocky Mountain; (5) Region IX. Pacific; and (6) Region X. Northwest. In addition to state and local partners, the research project has commitment from regulatory, research, and industry advocacy partners including the International Code Council (ICC) and ICC NTA, LLC to address regulatory barriers; Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies to co-design and analyze the focus group data and provide economic analysis on housing affordability; and Ivory Innovations as support for local workshops and a U.S. Offsite Pilot Summit in Washington, D.C. City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing | Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) | MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics | Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development | Minneapolis Public Housing Authority | Salt Lake City Corporation | Housing Development Consortium of Seattle - King County | Van Metre Companies | Volumetric Building Companies Solomon Greene | regina gray | Dan Hardcastle | Mike Blanford | Paige Roosa | Andrea Harris-Long, MPA, AICP | Lauren Finegan | Cindy Davis | Jeff Brown | Bryan Horn | Brian Schaffer | Mary Tingerthal | Helena Lidelöw | Ryan Colker | David Tompos | Patience Malaba | Justin Stewart | Eric Schaefer | Abby Ivory | Jenna Louie | David Luberoff Ryan E. Smith | Ivan Rupnik | Tyler Schmetterer #offsite #offsiteconstruction #industrializedconstruction #affordablehousing

Prior to recently presenting key intermediary research findings and a full-day interactive workshop at U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, MOD X coordinated a HUD Adjunct Regional Offsite Tour in Boston, Maryland, and Virginia. The 2-day tour was planned to reciprocate for the generosity our international hosts provided during the MOD X 2023 research trips to the UK, Japan, and Sweden, and was designed to offer HUD, federal agency, state/city representatives, and our workshop participants an opportunity to learn about the current U.S. East Coast offsite context. Tour Day 1 was scheduled around Greater Boston where the group toured the Saint-Gobain North America facility that includes R&D labs designed to foster innovation in building science solutions, innovative materials, and next generation offsite products and services. The delegation then toured the Bensonwood Unity Homes® factory and learned about the company’s unique 40+ year history, offsite building systems, business model based on global learnings, and focus on high-performance sustainable housing projects. The day culminated with a tour of the new design and engineering offices of Volumetric Building Companies where the group learned about their international vertically integrated industrialized manufacturing capabilities. Tour Day 2 was scheduled in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region where the delegation toured Blueprint, an integrated offsite company that utilizes a hybrid panelized wood and mass timber system to produce high-performance, multi-unit residential buildings integrating Passive design standards. The group then traveled to Northern Virginia to meet with Van Metre Companies, a nearly 70-year-old vertically integrated homebuilder and real estate developer that has developed an in-house offsite housing delivery system utilizing panelized and volumetric modular components. MOD X thanks all the tour hosts and participants for contributing to such an insightful experience rooted in deep offsite industry experience and a strong spirit of sharing knowledge and best practices across country borders. MOD X also thanks representatives from the City of Boston Mayor’s Office of Housing, Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), and the MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics for providing their perspectives on the future of industrialized offsite construction. Solomon Greene | regina gray | Dan Hardcastle | Todd Richardson | Mike Blanford | Tanaya S. | Meron Habte | Sarah Lee | Dennis Michaud | Martin Torrez | Kaley Laleker | Ashutosh P. | John Harding, PMP | Tedd Benson | Jay Lepple | Ingrid Knittle | Sara.Ann Logan AIA, RIBA, NOMA, IIDA | Michael Palmer | Helena Lidelöw | Jerome Smalley | Jason Bos | Bill Grothmann | Lous De Keyser | Martin Lettenmeier | Christopher Fox, AIA, NCARB, CAPS | Kevin Rabil | Mike Sandkuhler | Joseph Wheeler | Paige Roosa Ryan E. Smith | Ivan Rupnik | Tyler Schmetterer #offsite #offsiteconstruction #industrializedconstruction

Last week, MOD X presented key intermediary research findings and facilitated a full-day interactive workshop at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) national headquarters in Washington, D.C. HUD’s Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) is collaborating with the National Institute of Building Sciences and MOD X to develop an Actionable Strategy for HUD’s Role in Accelerating U.S. Offsite Housing Construction to respond to the dual challenges of housing affordability and climate change. The project has been conducted in three (3) distinct phases: Phase 1 - Evaluating U.S. domestic initiatives in industrialized construction (IC); Phase 2 - Comparing international IC programs in the UK (England + Scotland), Japan, and Sweden; and Phase 3 - Facilitating a series of workshops to analyze and compare domestic and international lessons. The HUD Workshop consisted of two primary parts: (1) MOD X presented key intermediary research findings of the project “HUD’s Current and Future Role in U.S. Offsite Construction for Housing”; (2) three-part thematic breakout sessions during which MOD X gathered valuable data from attendees through a live interview format. The research data from the breakout sessions will be collected, analyzed, synthesized, and presented by MOD X to HUD as part of the third and final workshop planned for April 2024. The outcome of the workshops will provide the basis of a final report to inform HUD and other U.S. federal agencies to support the development of an effective future Actionable Strategy for U.S. Offsite Housing Construction via the development of a national innovation framework. MOD X would like to thank all of the HUD workshop participants and project Key Partners for their insightful contributions including: Solomon Greene | regina gray | Dan Hardcastle | Todd Richardson | Mike Blanford | Jagruti Rekhi | Mark Reardon | Tanaya Srini | Alaina Stern | Meron Habte | Sarah Lee | Teresa Payne | Nicole Green-Catten | Julia Gordan | Cliff Kornegay | David Fleishman | Carlyn Cullen | Kevin Naranjo | Jay Wrobel | Matt Hoffman | Ricki Wells Edward J. – UK (England) | Robert Hairstans – UK (Scotland) | Stephen Good – UK (Scotland) | Susanne Iverus Rudenstam – Sweden | Tomas Carlsson – Sweden | Sofia Hansdotter – Sweden | Céline McHugh – Ireland | Manus O Donnell – Ireland | Daiki Yamashita – Japan | TAKU SASAKI – Japan | Tomoyuki Gondo – Japan | Tetsuji Ando – Japan | Junichiro Takagi – Japan | Masaya Iwamoto – Japan Helena Lidelöw | Sara.Ann Logan AIA, RIBA, NOMA, IIDA | Lucas Toffoli | Mary Tingerthal | Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies | Tyler Pullen | Todd Beyreuther | Grace H. Kim | Dennis Michaud | David Tompos | Ryan Colker | Justin Stewart | Cindy Davis | Jenna Louie | Tom Hardiman, CAE | Christopher Fox, AIA, NCARB, CAPS | Juan Torres Leon Ryan E. Smith | Ivan Rupnik | Tyler Schmetterer #offsite #offsiteconstruction #industrializedconstruction #modular #affordablehousing