HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase Features Housing Solutions

HUD’s Innovative Housing Showcase Features Housing Solutions

First held in 2019, this year’s Innovative Housing Showcase will take place on the National Mall from September 6 to September 10, 2025. The event will exhibit technologies shaping the future of American housing as well as highlight pivotal moments in the history of housing in the US.

In June 2019, HUD hosted the inaugural Innovative Housing Showcase in response to the need to lower housing production costs while increasing the housing supply. Held annually on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the event brings together policymakers, industry leaders, and the public to explore novel approaches to building more affordable, durable, and resilient homes. The fifth edition of the showcase continues to advance knowledge of technologies that are making housing nationwide more accessible and affordable.

Design of the Innovative Housing Showcase

The 3-day event features exhibitor demonstrations and full-sized prototype homes along both sides of the National Mall. Exhibitors build housing structures featuring a particular technology or construction method that visitors can experience firsthand. Guides inside the exhibits offer visitors more information about the prototypes, such as cost, building materials, square footage, and other design elements. HUD encourages exhibitors to present prototypes that not only use innovative technologies to promote resilience and disaster recovery but also address broader quality-of-life goals. Over the years, HUD has prioritized proposals from exhibitors that address affordability, accessibility, aging in place, and access to healthy housing for low- and moderate-income households. The event also features booths hosted by firms, organizations, and other federal agencies that offer information related to the showcase theme.

In addition to the exhibitor booths, the showcase also offers a series of hybrid events that include educational sessions and panel discussions. The sessions feature experts from the government, industry, and nonprofit sectors. Speakers cover topics such as offsite construction, building codes, public housing, and financing. Each year, the showcase begins with opening remarks from the HUD Secretary, who reinforces HUD’s commitment to advancing and sharing knowledge around residential construction by bringing together a diverse stakeholder group to exchange ideas and strategies to address current challenges.

Remembering the Inaugural Showcase

HUD hosted the first Innovative Housing Showcase events in 2019. The then HUD Secretary Ben Carson lauded the event as an opportunity to “highlight… new building technologies that are answering the call for more affordable, durable housing options for families across America.” This first showcase included U.S. representatives as well as leaders from HUD, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. That year, Prescient, a digital design-build company, demonstrated a new prototype that improves the process for designing, manufacturing, and assembling multiunit housing. Ducky Johnson, a disaster recovery and mitigation housing company, also brought a prototype with a building system that elevates existing homes with flood risk exposure.

The Upcoming 2025 Showcase

The upcoming fifth annual Innovative Housing Showcase will take place from September 6 to 10, 2025, on the National Mall. In keeping with the executive order marking the 250th birthday of the United States, this year’s theme is “The American Home Is the American Dream.” HUD has issued a call for exhibitors for the showcase, with a preference for full-scale housing models and technology demonstrations that are interactive for the visiting public and that have the potential to increase supply, lower construction costs, or reduce housing expenses. In addition to continuing to shed light on the future of housing innovation, this year’s showcase will highlight pivotal moments that have shaped housing history and the pride of homeownership.