Offsite Construction
Residents in our region face unprecedented challenges in finding and keeping homes they can afford. Rising rents continue to displace people further from their communities and push our most disenfranchised neighbors into homelessness. Underproduction of affordable housing continues in the face of increasing material, land, and labor costs, yet we have limited resources to invest in affordable housing. This shortfall has been decades in the making and the problem can’t be solved overnight—we must double down on proven strategies and create new breakthroughs.
What is Offsite Construction?
Offsite construction involves the process of planning, designing, fabricating, transporting and assembling building elements for rapid site assembly to a greater degree of finish than in traditional piecemeal on-site construction.
Offsite building allows for componentized, panelized, and modularized elements of the building to be constructed offsite in a factory setting before transported to the work site where they are incorporated into the building.
Today, Washington State’s housing production remains fragmented across land acquisition, design, permitting, financing, manufacturing, procurement, and construction. Most projects are still delivered as individual transactions, which limits standardization, factory utilization, learning, and cost reduction.
The Washington State Offsite Housing Production Action Plan focuses on creating the conditions for all actors to operate as one coordinated system. Our goal is straightforward: help Washington State produce more affordable homes, more quickly, with greater cost certainty, through a coordinated housing production system.
Read the Action Plan
Read the Washington State Offsite Housing Production Plan and learn how, instead of creating another standalone program, the Plan connects existing work into a functioning production ecosystem.
Read the PlanDeveloped in partnership with Helix, the Offsite Feasibility Agent aims to expedite the process of parcel evaluation—saving you time and money.
Offsite Feasibility Agent
- San Francisco, CA
- Nashville, TN
- Portland, OR
Grace Kim
- Schemata Workshop
- Task Force Co-Chair
Rick Mohler
- UW College of Built Environments
- Task Force Co-Chair
Justin Stewart
- Synergy, Inc.
- Task Force Co-Chair
Thank you to our strategic allies supporting this effort alongside HDC.
