Offsite Construction Whitepapers & Reports
Learn more about every facet of the offsite construction industry—modular, panelized, precast, relocatable—in these whitepapers and reports.
Latest Reports
2024 Canadian Modular Industry Report
The report highlights a significant shift in housing trends, noting a stable number of new housing starts at around 140,000 units, with a marked transition from single-family homes to apartment complexes.
2024 Permanent Modular Construction Report
The 2024 Annual Report for the North American commercial modular construction industry, produced by the Modular Building Institute (MBI), provides comprehensive data on market share, production, and financial performance.
2024 Relocatable Buildings Report
The industry consists of approximately 500,000 relocatable buildings, with public school districts operating about 200,000 of these as classrooms, and the industry owning and leasing around 300,000 buildings, representing more than $5 billion in assets​.
More Offsite Construction Industry Reports
Accelerating Residential Building Decarbonization
With growing concerns about climate change, resilience, and housing affordability, the urgency to decarbonize US residential buildings is more pressing than ever. This challenge also presents an unparalleled opportunity for innovation and market expansion in the construction industry.
Industrializing Construction to Decarbonize Buildings
The Advanced Building Construction (ABC) Initiative accelerates the speed and scale of U.S. building decarbonization through industrialized innovations that deliver low carbon, affordable, and appealing new buildings and retrofits. Industrialization refers to streamlining manufacturing, business models, and installation of technologies to become reproducible at scale. To do this, the ABC Initiative provides support to accelerate innovations coming out of RD&D through commercialization and scaling, all informed by market needs.
Seizing the Modular Construction Opportunity
At a time when Canada’s construction needs are rising and the industry grapples with numerous challenges, modular construction can provide an efficient and cost-effective alternative to the development of high-quality, attractive buildings that are affordable, durable, energy-efficient, and even recyclable.
This report outlines the key benefits of modular construction, as well as the main barriers impeding its wider adoption in Canada.
The Sustainability of Modular Construction
Modular construction is a more environmentally friendly building method than traditional on-site construction. By utilizing modular techniques and sustainable construction methods, building developers can lower their projects’ overall environmental impact through reduced emissions, reduced waste, material reusability, and increased energy efficiency.
2023 Relocatable Buildings Report
This newly-updated report collects the most recent data from the fleet owners around the industry and new project and revenue data. This report also includes valuable information for code compliance and provides an overview of the markets served by the relocatable buildings industry.
2023 Modular Construction Annual Reports
This completely redesigned report looks at current drivers and trends of the commercial modular construction industry and provides a regional analysis of the North American market. Financial trends and forecasts, environmental impacts, as well as revenue and market share data, are also included.
Quantifying Safety in Off-site Construction (2022)
The concept of leveraging off-site construction as a safer alternative to execute construction works has been presented by researchers and industry, but support for this premise with quantifiable data is lacking. To investigate differences in off-site construction versus conventional on-site methods, the research has developed a safety evaluation methodology to quantify safety performance and allow for comparisons of construction methods.
Offsite Construction for Housing: Research Roadmap (2023)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, in partnership with the National Institute of Building Sciences and MOD X, has published the Offsite Construction for Housing: Research Roadmap, a strategic report that presents the key knowledge gaps and research needs to overcome the barriers and challenges to offsite construction in the United States.
The Energy in Modular (EMOD) Buildings Method (2022)
The Energy in Modular (EMOD) method is NREL's new approach to designing, producing, and delivering affordable, net-zero energy, low-carbon, and healthier buildings at scale. NREL's Industrialized Construction Innovation Team led the development of this guide, and its scope of work includes whole-building level and subassemblies of components, pods, panels, and volumetric modules.
The State of Prefabrication in Canada (2022)
A comprehensive overview of the past, present, and future of mass timber, panels, and volumetric modular construction in Canada.
Decarbonization During Predevelopment of Modular Building Solutions
This report details actionable pathways for the industry to leverage advanced building construction, reduce net zero energy incremental costs, and achieve significant greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2030.
2022 Modular Construction Annual Reports
Exclusive modular construction industry stats, trends, and data from around the world. These reports cover both sides of the commercial modular construction industry: permanent modular construction and relocatable (portable) buildings.
Scaling Up Off-Site Construction in Southern California
This analysis documents the current landscape of offsite construction in Southern California with a focus on multifamily affordable and supportive housing, drawing on dozens of interviews with industry experts to identify barriers and opportunities related to expanding its success and adoption.
Prefabrication and Modular Construction 2020
Prefabrication and modular construction are poised to transform several sectors of the construction industry.
Exploring the Existing Regulatory Framework for Modular Construction in Canada
This report explores the current regulatory landscape in Canada and identifies key opportunities to support modular construction.
Design for Modular Construction: An Introduction for Architects
From quality and safety to schedule efficiency and sustainability, modular building has a lot to offer owners and project teams. Learn more about the variety of benefits of modular construction with the new AIA Modular and Off-Site Construction Guide.
Designing with SIPs: Design Considerations
SIP design process overview with key points and checklists for the ten most important considerations when designing a SIP building.
Appendix Q
Everything you need to know about International Residential Code (IRC) Appendix Q model building code for tiny houses.
Modularization Precedes Digitalization in Offsite Housing Delivery (2022)
MOD X has developed a conceptual model that nests digitalization and technology within three frames—the contextual frame (i.e., market, material, labor, regulations, and culture), the business platform frame (value creation, supply chain, and integration), and the product platform frame (modularization, product platforms, assemblies, and continual improvement).
Saving Time with Modular Bathroom Pods
This white paper from the Modular Building Institute focuses on the interspersion of bathroom pods into traditional construction methods. We will discuss how to know if bathroom pods are ideal for your project, the benefits of bathroom pods, and provide case study examples of successful bathroom pod implementations.
Building Component Safety Information (BCSI)
Produced by Structural Building Components Association, the BCSI is the truss industry's guide for jobsite safety and truss performance. This edition includes the most current information regarding the handling, installation, restraining and bracing of metal plate connected wood trusses.
BCSI also includes information and guidance pertaining to diagonal bracing for web members with two rows of lateral restraint, as well as permanent lateral restraint and diagonal bracing guidance for trusses spaced wider than 2' o.c.
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