America isn’t building enough homes. There are numerous reasons for this: retrograde zoning laws, worker shortages, trade tariffs, a lack of unionized labor (at least in certain regions), and the list goes on. It is a complex problem with no silver bullet. If there is an X factor, it’s speed. We don’t build fast enough, and each of the reasons listed above inform this tangential truth. But rather than get into the contributing factors of why this is, I want to revisit a topic that is, by all accounts, long on innovation but remains stubbornly short on impact: prefabricated, modular construction.

Automating green design

On paper, prefabrication is a win-win-win. By designing and assembling entire buildings or building sections in factory-controlled conditions, the process can save money, reduce waste, and speed up the construction process. Prefabricators have also garnered a reputation for a level of precision and detailing that can yield a very high-quality product. Indeed, the number of prefabricated home builders entering the sustainability and zero-energy space has been steadily growing for at least a decade.

In 2022, California startup Plant Prefab broke ground on a 270,000-sq. ft. production plant on 17 acres in Arvin. The company cited this as the country’s “first automated factory devoted to efficient and sustainably building multifamily developments and custom single-family homes.” The facility has been up and running for just over a year, producing Plant Prefab’s patented building systems, panels, and modules for its clients, which include various developers, general contractors, and architects.

The new manufacturing hub has a production capacity of 3 million sq. ft. annually, which Steve Glenn, Plant Prefab’s…