Virginia Center for Housing Research News

Modular construction, also called industrial construction, is seen as a potential solution to the problems of labor shortages and rising materials costs in the housing industry today.

The town of Blacksburg approved a rezoning request October 10th for an affordable housing project by Habitat for Humanity to build 11 townhomes in a residential neighborhood.

A housing study for Virginia Beach is being conducted by the Housing and Neighborhood Preservation and Virginia Center for Housing Research (VCHR) at Virginia Tech.

Bluefield leaders say the city is running severely low on available housing for people to stay. To help address the problem the city brought in a housing expert from Virginia Tech to host group discussions with groups like contractors and realtors.

New technologies and practices are making construction faster and less expensive than ever before. For example, advances in wood construction allow developers to avoid some of the high costs of concrete and steel for multistory buildings. McCoy explained that builders can construct buildings of up to 30 stories out of mass timber. In addition, robots are increasingly capable of taking on construction labor. Some robots perform single tasks, such as 3D printing and bricklaying, whereas other machines can execute more complex jobs such as welding, painting, or repaving.

Dr. Andrew McCoy is passionate about innovating the residential construction industry to make homes affordable and sustainable for Virginians. Over this career, he has authored over 100 articles on this topic and through his work he has secured over $6 million in research grants.

Homes built with 3D-printed technology use large-scale equipment for much of the construction, but also rely on traditional techniques for other basic needs of a home, such as roofing, electrical wiring, insulation and window installation.