Green Multifamily Housing

Bensonwood, long known for its production of high-performance prefab residential and commercial wood structures, is ramping up its production capacity to accommodate an increased demand for green, healthy, multifamily housing. The imperative for wise land and energy use is making these sustainable, multi-family construction projects more and more attractive to civic planners, developers, and builders, as well as for homebuyers, and renters. This trend is no accident.

For construction professionals, in particular, schedule shortening is critical. Maintaining a job on site costs much money. Alternately, shortening production time at the build site shortens management time, site insurance, cleanup, and the delay of an income stream from sales or rentals. Efficient, non-linear, off-site fabrication of multi-unit housing, concurrent with site work, shorten time on site, ultimately reducing financial risk and waste.

On the consumer side, both buyers and tenants benefit from the enhanced indoor environmental quality, drastically reduced operational costs through the pooling of shared heating/cooling resources, and lower maintenance costs. When built to LEED and Passive House standards—benchmarks more easily achieved through off-site fabrication—and accompanied by Energy Star protocols, these operational costs can dwindle to mere pennies on the dollar every year throughout the life of the building.

For consumers and construction professionals alike, high performance in multi-unit housing is essential precisely because it can make sound ecological and economic sense. Not surprisingly, market forces play a role here. Due to low turnover, there is a shortage of existing, affordable, high-performance, single-family homes. Moreover, those interested in a custom built, high performance, single-family house generally intend to remain in the home for many years, which leaves little inventory on the market. Rentals and sales of green, multifamily units, in contrast, are typically occupied on shorter horizons, with annual leases or owner up-sizing often determining increased turnover. Therefore, green, multi-unit residences will increasingly become the more available choice for many seeking healthy, high-performance living at a lower price point.