Pilot project hopes to speed construction of small apartments with B.C.-made modular components

A rendering of how a factory-built modular fourplex might look. Photo by Fresh Brand

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Permitting from a municipality would happen in a few weeks and the building could be ready to occupy within just 12 weeks.

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“That timeline is our goal,” said Paul Binotto, director of the non-profit organization Modular B.C.

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Having that certainty and speed, combined with the reliability of pieces manufactured in B.C., would go a long way to reducing financing and other costs, he said.

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It’s a plan that Modular B.C. hopes will help it increase factory-built, modular housing from just 4.5 per cent of housing starts in B.C. to 25 per cent within five years.

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On Wednesday, Modular B.C. announced an agreement to work with the National Research Council to develop a modular housing playbook for governments and builders.

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It will start with a pilot project that the City of Burnaby and the Burnaby Housing Authority are part of conducting on a single site owned by the city.

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The hope is that other municipalities will start their own pilot projects to provide a set of examples that develop precise tools and information for using locally made, factory-built pieces to increase the delivery of affordable housing across B.C., said Binotto.

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The plan is supported mayors of other municipalities in B.C. that are also looking to advance similar pilot projects, he said.

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“This is a real opportunity to get home built faster and more affordably,” said Burnaby Mayor Mike Hurley, who heads a task force that was established in late 2024 and includes the mayors of Prince George, Penticton, Nanaimo and Williams Lake.

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“The big challenge right now is to really quantify how much time do you save, how much money are you saving, how much labour are you saving?” said Yasir Sultan, executive director of built-environment climate-change initiatives at the National Research Council.

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The Council will collecting information on the pilot projects so that it can be compared with more conventional approaches to building small apartment buildings, he said.

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“When an asset owner or somebody wants to use this kind of construction, they can say, ‘if I use these conditions, this is how much I can save and this is the process I’ll need to follow.'”

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There are some 20 factories in B.C. that could be part of these pilot projects, said Binotto, adding that the pilot projects will add manufacturing jobs in factories that are currently only operating at about 30 per cent capacity.

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The one that will supply the modular pieces for the Burnaby pilot is in Penticton and has over 200 workers.

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Jake Fry, founding owner and partner of Smallworks Studios and Laneway Housing, has long advocated off-site customizing of modular pieces for the building of small homes.