Insight Studio Trip | Inside the Future of Modular Housing

Description

Do pre-fabricated housing solutions have a future in helping to solve California’s housing crisis? Join us on Friday, May 15, as we meet with the Cal Poly project team and Volumetric Building Companies (VBC) leadership in Tracy, California for a discussion about modular construction at an impressive scale. A tour of the working factory will provide valuable insight into how building a structure on an assembly line changes many of the traditional assumptions about development and construction. 

Cal Poly’s newest 3,500 bed dorm project is embracing an old construction technique in a new and innovative way: pre-fab buildings. While factory-built homes can bring double-wide trailers to mind, VBC, located in Tracy, is changing that narrative by building Cal Poly’s new massive, multi-story dorm complexes remotely. Once these pieces arrive on campus, they are lifted into place by a crane, connected floor by floor, and almost instantly ready for move-in. If you blink, you may miss the construction! 

What you'll experience: 

• A guided facility tour of Volumetric Building Companies (VBC), one of the nation's leading modular construction manufacturers, where entire building systems are fabricated under one roof with precision and speed. 
• A real-world application of pre-fabricated housing unfolding in our own community. Members of Cal Poly's Facilities Team will join us for the tour and a discussion about what this technology means for campus development. 
• A conversation about the bigger picture. Modular construction is reshaping how communities tackle housing production, affordability and sustainable development, and this technology could help SLO County build faster and get more units online. 
• Why this matters to SLO. Housing is one of our region's most pressing challenges, and traditional construction timelines and costs make solutions difficult. Modular building approaches offer a compelling opportunity for SLO County, and this trip will offer the opportunity to see it firsthand to understand what’s possible.