Recap: DC Road Trip

Throughout the year, the Alliance visits forward-thinking people and companies in order to keep our network informed. This time, we traveled to the greater DC area to visit some awesome people!

A BIG thank you to our hosts!

Van Metre

We visited Van Metre BASE in Winchester, VA to get an inside look at what they are working on in their factory.

Here are a few key takeaways from the trip..

  • Homes are built like a race car. They can be built in a factory and once they are placed on the track you have the opportunity to learn a lot about it…
  • POWERhaus Pillars – Progressive. Optimized. Waste-conscious. Efficient. Renewable.
  • “You have to completely rethink the process, but you are able to see what works and what doesn’t, allowing tweaks to be made for this time and the next.”

Join us on a tour of their warehouse:

Next, see a top 5 list of features their customers love in the Timberneck II model at Van Metre’s Meadowbrook Farm community

Watch the full playlist and find more: https://byoh.vanmetreco.com 

Middleburg Communities

We sat down with CEO, Chris Finlay, to talk about Build for Rent and how he sees the future generations moving the industry forward.

Listen in:

  • Renters by choice vs. renters by necessity is continuing to increase
  • The “home renter-ship” concept allows for both, with the perks of renting while owning a home
  • It’s important to capture SFR with the best of apartment qualities. Create a community, but don’t force it…it is possible to have the best of both worlds!
  • Opportunities for innovation right now: industrialized building, alternative materials and more green technology

KTGY

 Puzzle 30 and Ensemble are just two R+D projects that KTGY is working on. We learned more about these concepts and how they are using innovation to create the future of housing.

A few key takeaways:

  • By focusing on the broader challenges without a particular site or project steering your thought process, you can come up with more creative solutions that could work in several situations 
  • Puzzle 30 drives attainability by providing a great option for people who may want to get into a higher market than they can generally afford; creative use of land, scale and orientation of communal spaces make this possible 
  • The US is really behind the rest of the world in the trend of multigenerational living, but two factors have moved KTGY in that direction with Ensemble– the recession, with children moving home out of necessity, and the pandemic, with people seeing the value in having family close by

Watch the full playlist:

Full playlist found here.