Paul Binotto envisions a small apartment building that arrives in six boxes, with pieces manufactured in B.C. factories that can be assembled in a day or two. Permitting from a municipality would take a few weeks, and the building could be ready to occupy within just 12 weeks.
Goal of 12-Week Construction Timeline
“That timeline is our goal,” said Binotto, director of the non-profit organization Modular B.C. Having that certainty and speed, combined with the reliability of locally manufactured pieces, would significantly reduce financing and other costs, he added.
Modular B.C. hopes this plan will increase factory-built modular housing from just 4.5 per cent of housing starts in B.C. to 25 per cent within five years.
Pilot Project Partnership
On Wednesday, Modular B.C. announced an agreement to work with the National Research Council (NRC) to develop a modular housing playbook for governments and builders. The initiative will start with a pilot project on a single site owned by the City of Burnaby, involving the Burnaby Housing Authority.
“This is a real opportunity to get homes built faster and more affordably,” said Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley, who heads a task force established in late 2024 that includes mayors from Prince George, Penticton, Nanaimo, and Williams Lake.
Quantifying Savings and Benefits
“The big challenge right now is to really quantify how much time do you save, how much money are you saving, how much labour are you saving?” said Yasir Sultan, executive director of built-environment climate-change initiatives at the NRC. The council will collect data from pilot projects to compare with conventional construction methods.
“When an asset owner or somebody wants to use this kind of construction, they can say, ‘if I use these conditions, this is how much I can save and this is the process I’ll need to follow,'” Sultan explained.
Manufacturing Capacity and Job Creation
There are about 20 factories in B.C. that could participate in these pilot projects, said Binotto. Currently operating at only about 30 per cent capacity, these factories would add manufacturing jobs. The factory supplying modular pieces for the Burnaby pilot is in Penticton and employs over 200 workers.
Jake Fry, founding owner of Smallworks Studios and Laneway Housing, has long advocated off-site customizing of modular pieces for small homes.
