Visit the RECAP tab above for event recordings and (key takeaways coming soon).

There’s never been a greater need for innovation.

Half of renters and nearly a quarter of homeowners pay more than 30 percent of their monthly income for a place to live. At the same time, for those who want or need to move, demand far outweighs supply of both new and existing housing, and pricing is through the roof.

Freddie Mac estimates that there is 4 million units in pent up demand as of late 2020. Vacancies have fallen to a 35-year low, creating a shortfall of 1.6 million homes. The gap will increase by another 300K units per year for the foreseeable future, as builders are unable to keep up with new demand. And the majority of unmet need is in affordable and middle-income housing.

How can our industry make better performing housing options more readily available to the public at a market price they can afford, in a way that also makes sense for business? Are there new processes, products and materials, and construction approaches that can help us deliver better homes more efficiently?

Over the course of two half-day sessions, we discussed four key barriers to innovation and high performance and the potential tools overcome them. Scroll down for specific details on each topic and expert bios.

#1: Education: Equipping the industry with the resources required to understand, value and execute innovation.

• Free people to think differently + progressively about home delivery
• Ensure training + development programs – and their leaders – are preparing our new workforce (leadership, managers, factory/field crews, designers) to help drive and adopt innovation
• Ensure the current workforce also has the knowledge + mind space to continually change
• Provide training that is affordable + accessible
• Ensure compensation is competitive + supports the continuing education required
• Determine the effort needed + potential benefits of industrializing the labor force + re-educating the industry from the top down
• Ensure there’s a big picture view of sustainability – beyond just energy efficiency

#2: Behavioral Factors + Biases: Breaking engrained habits, changing perspectives and paving the way for innovation within the industry, with local government and with consumers.

• Overcome established preferences and the desire to maintain the status quo
• Start thinking long-term rather than short-term gain
• Encourage adoption of solutions that have been proven in other areas of construction
• Encourage leadership to advocate for + even mandate innovation
• Leverage success stories to influence the industry + drive adoption
• Move the focus beyond first cost toward total cost of ownership – taking sustainability, resiliency + energy efficiency into account
• Communicate benefits to consumers + get them to value what they may not be able to see or get instant gratification from
• Communicate benefits of innovation to municipalities + get them to allow practices to be adopted in the local marketplace

#3: Risks: Ensuring the value of innovation outweighs the exposure that could result from failure and actively mitigating the risk along the way.

• Effectively address code compliance + product liability issues earlier in the development process
• Make sure new innovations are vetted + risks are manageable before bringing them into the mainstream
• Ensure consumer demand will justify the investment + risks for homebuilders

What are the rewards and incentives for innovation? The most pressing risks for builders and developers? Solution providers?

#4: Fragmentation of the Industry: Driving collaboration, communication and change management throughout the value chain and the home delivery process.

• Get people to share more openly, while keeping intellectual property in mind
• Foster collaboration between Design, Construction + developers
• Foster partnerships + engagement between industry players + with other industries such as automotive + aerospace to drive product, material + process innovation
• Provide innovation commercialization models that are specific to residential construction
• Ensure all players in the value chain have easy + equal access to knowledge about innovation

Join us for expert panels and Q+A in each area followed by working group sessions, where you’ll be an active participant – sharing your own ideas and insights.

This event is being co-hosted by RNN Architects and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), with support from the Housing Innovation Alliance. The focus is solutions for driving availability + attainability in market rate housing, and HUD will be leveraging the insights of expert panels and attendees to determine what actions could be taken in the short and long-term within HUD and among their numerous strategic partners.