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Purdue University’s vision for factory-built modular housing takes a step forward with construction of a prototyping and testing facility.
With the global housing market plagued by a lack of supply and affordability, one American university has taken a proactive approach to address these issues. Purdue University, located in Indiana, has launched NextHouse, an initiative designed to advance factory-built housing. (main pic: VBC’s Tracy modular manufacturing facility in California.)
“Many of the construction techniques used to build housing in the U.S. haven’t changed since the Industrial Revolution,” said James E. Braun, Herrick Professor of Engineering and director of the Center for High Performance Buildings at Purdue University. “We don’t just need more homes – we need better homes that prioritise affordability, sustainability, and resilience. The only way to do that is to change our paradigm of how homes are built.”
The NextHouse initiative is a comprehensive effort aiming to revitalise and scale up the modular housing factory-built housing industry. It intends to integrate expertise from both industry and academia to create affordable, sustainable, and resilient homes. The strategy focuses on standardising the manufacturing and assembly of modular elements, akin to assembling LEGO bricks.
“Manufactured homes have been around since the early 20th century,” Braun said. “But their processes haven’t kept up with 21st century technology, labour, or supply chains. Plus, their housing products don’t have mass customer appeal – only about 5% of housing in the U.S. today is built in a factory. We’re going to change that for the better.”
A key component of NextHouse is the construction of a large prototyping and testing facility on Purdue’s campus. This facility will serve as an experimental hub for modular housing construction techniques and a training centre for workers. It will also feature the Housing Environmental Evaluation Testing (HEET) Lab, which will allow controlled testing and evaluation of full-scale housing products under various environmental conditions.
“The new facility is just one aspect of NextHouse that will be a draw for industry partners,” Braun stated. “We are gathering an industry consortium of housing companies, material suppliers, architectural firms, and supply chain providers. We’re also building relationships with government agencies on every level, so that there will be a smooth pathway from conducting research to putting it into practice in the real world.”
The NextHouse team has already tested certain aspects of the programme on a smaller scale. In 2022, they developed a building-within-a-building test facility to determine how reconfigurable climate control equipment can be pre-built into walls. Now, they aim to scale up these experiments to a full-size modular house.
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The initiative has received USD$1 million from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to develop the NextHouse ecosystem. It is also competing for a USD$160 million award from the NSF Regional Innovation Engines programme, which would establish Indiana and southern Michigan as a hub for sustainable, cost-effective housing. Partnerships include the University of Michigan, Notre Dame, Michigan State, Ivy Tech, and Lansing Community College. The programme is managed by the Purdue Applied Research Institute (PARI) with a leadership team comprising Braun, Professor Travis Horton, and Professor Panagiota Karava.
“The NextHouse initiative has tremendous potential,” said Mark Lewis, president and CEO of PARI. “Their goals align perfectly with our mission of enhancing Purdue’s ability to translate discoveries into innovative solutions and services for mission-oriented government and industry.”
