2024 Hack-A-House Competition Tackles Challenges in Housing
Hack-A-House released the prompt topics on the first day of the competition, each focusing on a specific challenge impacting housing affordability. After selecting a topic, student teams conducted research, met with industry experts, and prepared a short slide deck to present live via Zoom to judges and other competitors.
A panel of expert judges heard the pitches and awarded winners on the very next day. Finalists for each prompt were then invited to pitch their ideas in-person for the grand prize at the 2024 Ivory Prize Summit hosted by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Prompt 1: Innovation Incentives
Despite significant and widespread technological advances like modular construction, 3D printing, onsite automation, and mass timber, the residential construction industry remains largely unchanged. Students exploring this issue were challenged to develop a solution that encourages the adoption of innovative building methods and materials with innovative solutions designed to break down the barriers that prevent builders and developers from embracing cost-saving construction innovations.
Grand Prize Winner: Holz House Hackers, UC Berkeley
Holz House Hackers acknowledged the very important fact that demand for mass timber housing outpaces supply. The team’s strategy for addressing this constraint was part of a (quickly) well-researched proposal that connected firmly with the judges.
Runner Up: BlackBear, University of Maine
Judges appreciated BlackBear’s emphasis on the importance of workforce training and educating the public about opportunities in construction. Part of this group’s pitch was the idea of using universities as place-based hubs for workforce/economic development, which is an important aspect of how these institutions serve their communities.
Prompt 2: Single-Family Housing Densification
Housing demand continues to outpace supply, and local governments are embracing new policies to make it easier to add more housing units on single-family plots. To address this issue, students were challenged to create a solution that simplifies and encourages the addition of housing units within existing single-family homes. Solutions aimed to improve housing affordability by increasing the supply of units within existing single-family neighborhoods.
Category Winner: Property Brothers – University of Utah
This team hit at the heart of why ADUs don’t get built, even after removing all other barriers: money. The proposal they developed leveraged a shared equity model that would access capital in a non-predatory manner, as well as use CRA funds for immediate replicability and scalability.
Runner Up: TKJ Development – University of Utah
A big barrier to adding density to communities is that existing homeowners often do not understand the potential equity of their property. This model targeted owners who are positioned to add ADUs to their properties and proposed a streamlined, efficient system to connect them to financing, contractors, and manufacturers.
View Pitch →
Runner Up: NYLS Development – Columbia University
While communities and residents wish to up-zone and add density, most current financial models benefit large builders who can use economies of scale to distribute costs. For individual homeowners, the ability to lessen the up-front cost of construction loans is a significant barrier. This proposed model opened financing avenues to homeowners without increasing undue financial burden, while also accelerating the availability of housing units.
Prompt 3: Housing Safety Net
Despite the growing need for equitable housing, costs continue to rise. Students exploring this challenge were tasked with designing a solution that strengthens the housing safety net for those experiencing financial hardship, ensuring that individuals and families—whether renters or homeowners—have access to safe, stable, and affordable housing. Solutions considered both immediate interventions to prevent homelessness and housing loss, as well as long-term strategies to increase and preserve access to affordable housing.
Category Winner: HomeTown Hackers – Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The proposal creatively combined public land with standardized modular construction in a community land trust model to provide truly affordable and sustainable homeownership opportunities without further subsidies.
Runner Up: Team Hero Hackers – California Lutheran University, Kennesaw State University, Indiana University Bloomington
This team reimagined the G.I. Bill by introducing an innovative approach to enhance existing benefits, aiming to ensure affordable housing for active duty service members and veterans, with the added feature of transferability to their children to provide a lasting impact on their families’ futures.
People’s Choice
Hack-A-House also included a live voting event for the People’s Choice winner, selecting The Yellow Elephant, City College of New York’s Innovation Incentive entry for an online platform that brings manufacturers, vendors, builders, and project management companies together with a multi-dimensioned software that trains labor with certified workshops and manages multiple software programs on a single platform.
The finalists from each prompt were invited to pitch their solutions in-person at the Ivory Prize Housing Innovation Summit hosted by Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design. The Grand-Prize was awarded to Holz House Hackers from UC Berkeley’s Real Estate Development and Design program.
“Over the course of Hack-A-House, we loved learning about the potential to scale up mass timber supply in the U.S. and becoming advocates for its adoption,” the team from Berkeley said. “It was exciting to dig into the benefits of mass timber construction, imagine innovative ways to improve regional supply, and connect with so many inspiring people and companies who are already working in this space.”
