International Code Council Hosts Educational Session at 2024 Innovative Housing Showcase

From June 6-9, 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) hosted the 2024 Innovative Housing Showcase in Washington, D.C., which was co-presented by the International Code Council. This event brought together building safety professionals and policymakers from across the nation to promote solutions addressing the affordable housing crisis.

The showcase highlighted innovative and affordable housing designs and technologies with the potential to increase housing supply, lower construction costs, enhance energy efficiency and resilience, and reduce housing expenses for owners and renters.

Over 40 exhibitors from across the U.S. presented their innovative housing products and strategies. The event also featured several educational sessions on topics such as off-site construction, building codes, manufactured housing, decarbonization, zoning, public and multifamily housing, resilience and finance.

Code Council President Stuart Tom spoke at the Showcase’s opening at the National Mall alongside HUD’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Solomon Greene and HUD Assistant Secretary for Housing Julia Gordon.

International Code Council Participation at the Innovative Housing Showcase

The Code Council hosted a session on June 6 from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. ET, titled Housing Innovation through Codes & Standards: Insights from State and Local Governments and Manufacturers.

The session kicked off with a fireside chat on Delivering Innovations in Building Science through Codes and Standards featuring Code Council Vice President David Spencer and HUD’s Greene. During the fireside chat, Greene and Spencer explored how both HUD and the Code Council are working with the industry at large and state and local governments to address the housing crisis. 

Following the fireside chat, Code Council Vice President of Innovation, Ryan Colker moderated a panel of state and local leaders implementing innovative strategies to leverage off-site construction to meet their housing needs. Steve Waldrip, Senior Strategy Advisor for Utah Governor Spencer Cox, shared how the state’s recent establishment of a statewide off-site construction program based on ICC/MBI standards will help address the challenges of delivering housing in rural communities.

Paige Roosa, Director of the Boston Housing Innovation Lab, discussed how the city is looking at opportunities to incentivize the use of off-site construction. Ryan TerBush, Commercial Loan Officer in the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority, spoke on the state’s innovative models to bring new off-site construction manufacturing capacity to the region.

The final panel of the session focused on how manufacturers can leverage product evaluation to help bring innovations to the market. ICC Evaluation Service Vice President Mike Temesvary moderated with speakers from the Structural Insulated Panel Association (SIPA), Neopor North America and Black Buffalo 3D. Each panelist shared their experience in going through the product evaluation process and how it has benefited their business and supported industry innovation.

Colker also moderated a panel on building decarbonization research and development featuring leaders from the U.S. Department of Energy, HUD and the private sector.  

Recordings of the sessions will be available for viewing in the coming months.

To learn more about off-site construction and access related resources, visit the Code Council’s dedicated webpage here.