International Case Study - Modular Housing: The Next Operating System for Cities

The housing crisis isn’t coming. It’s already here. For decades, the cost of housing has exploded while incomes struggle to keep pace — leaving cities trapped in a system that is too slow, too expensive, and too fragmented to deliver the homes people need. We have tried policy tweaks, financing tools, and planning reforms. Yet the gap between what housing costs and what people can afford continues to widen. In this provocative keynote, Jordan Jones (Integral) and Justin Kearnan (City Collective) argue that the real problem isn’t just housing supply — it’s the development model itself. They will unveil a radically different approach: combining off-site modular construction, mixed-income communities, public-private partnerships, and human-centered urban design into a repeatable system capable of delivering housing 20% cheaper, 50% faster, and at true community scale. This isn’t theory. It’s a new operating system for city building. The session will reveal how this model is already being deployed through transformative projects including Tribute Rising, a three-phase 1,000-unit mixed-income district in Durham, NC, USA, and two other developments combining an additional pipeline of 2,000 units. Attendees will also get the first look at a new vertically integrated development platform created to deploy this approach at scale, turning innovation in housing delivery into a powerful new flywheel for housing, community, and opportunity. The message is simple: if we want to solve housing, we must stop building projects and start building systems.