Hope Springs Eternal In Fight To Innovate Housing Affordability

Catch-22s riddle focus, initiative, commitment, and investment in housing affordability.

Here's a freshly-drawn latest example of what goes on always, everywhere, and all at once.

Accommodating a growing population requires new housing. But if you want to build something in America, countless interest groups weigh in, and those who seek to block change have an asymmetrical advantage. Getting substantial amounts of homes built requires the proper alignment of political and economic interests. By contrast, stopping necessary change takes just one or two well-positioned groups. In many cases, those groups are outsiders—nonprofits, neighborhood organizations. But when opposition to housing reforms comes from inside the government, elected officials are even more inclined to sit up and listen." – The Atlantic

The Atlantic's author of that passage, Jerusalem Demsas, has written, "housing breaks people's brains." She's made it a kind of reportorial mission to try to unpack the particular viciousness of the American housing crisis' vicious circles of entropy and self-perpetuating, inevitable frustration.

A tender spot in many of Demsas' housing crisis stories is this: While it takes gargantuan efforts, commitments, interlinkages, negotiations, and compromises to light on potential affordability solutions, it takes only the slightest whiff of opposition to wreck the most noble of endeavors.

What's equally compelling, fascinating, and unappreciated, though, is the inverse. People – young, middle-aged, and older – never stop trying. They never finally cease and desist in their efforts to apply new-found brilliance, resources, persuasiveness, and technology to break that chain of inevitability. To release a new pattern of effort and energy into society, and business, and industry, and policy that could self-sustain a bigger tent of access to homes, shelters, places, sanctuary, for people who can't get in now because of the crisis.

People, like Joseph Ruiz and his co-founder team members Alfonso Medina (CEO) and Dane Andrews (COO) at Madelon Group a five-year-old Denver and New York-based for-profit bent on blending machine learning, offsite construction, and environmental sustainability play in supporting missing middle housing development, just keep coming at the crisis, undeterred.

Listen now to Ivory Innovations' House Party, Episode 7: Joseph Ruiz, Madelon Group

Madelon is an innovative company based in Denver and New York City, with a mission to democratize the development process of infill micro studio apartment residential projects. Leveraging its proprietary REDtech software platform, Madelon aims to automate the pre-development stages, enabling developers, regardless of their size or experience level, to deliver consistent end-products across different locations.

Ask why, after countless failures and frustrations, people like Joseph Ruiz never give up, and any answer never quite gets there in explaining the bottomlessness of the well of hope and resolve. A hint from Madelon Joseph Ruiz, however, may lie hidden in plain sight: A pure, fully-appreciated celebration of the ordinary. He explains a moment that had a "deep impact on" his thinking this way:

One of the first books I read when I moved to New York was 20 minutes in Manhattan, by architecture critic and urbanist Michael Sorkin, who sadly passed away last year. In a sort of journalistic way he describes his daily routine beginning at his home, and then to his studio in Manhattan. He describes every detail of his daily journey, exposing a hidden side of the city that is so crucial to its existence as a melting pot. It was this first glance of the city that helped me better understand its complexities. It deeply impacted how I envision the role of architecture, in the sense that the act of inhabiting spaces extends far beyond our homes, and that any participation in building the urban landscape creates an incredible impact — and hopefully, a very positive one."

The hardest problems quicken the pulse of those who don't know they're not supposed to keep working to solve them. Joseph Ruiz, co-founder of Madelon, sat down recently to tape an episode of Ivory Innovations' House Party, with host Hannah Gable, director, Strategy and Operations at Ivory, to explore how to equip small, local developers with the right tools to streamline their processes, decrease delivery timelines, and increase construction quality.

On the collective effort required for housing solutions:

It cannot be done alone. Of course, there's the private sector that does housing, and it can have a positive impact on everything. But the fact is that we need so much housing in our cities that it needs to be a collective effort, at least in our cities, to have the impact that he needs to have at the scale that he needs to have."

Joseph Ruiz’s journey from co-living projects to founding Madelon underscores the importance of adaptability and innovation in the construction sector. His architectural background, focused on the residential branch, reflects a deep understanding of housing's crucial role in urban functionality. By exploring different models of housing, including co-living and micro-units, Madelon’s origins are rooted in a commitment to affordability and efficient use of space, aiming to address urban living challenges.

The transition to Madelon showcases a strategic shift towards leveraging technology and off-site construction methods to streamline development processes. The platform's integration of machine learning for site selection and the emphasis on modular construction highlight an innovative approach to reducing housing development complexities. This model not only accelerates project timelines but also enhances quality, safety, and environmental sustainability.

Madelon’s Red Tech Platform, offering tools from site analysis to property management, illustrates the power of digitization in making the development process more accessible and efficient. By democratizing access to complex development tools, Madelon empowers smaller developers to participate in creating affordable housing solutions, showcasing a scalable model that can significantly impact housing accessibility.

The partnership with off-site construction manufacturers, as discussed by Ruiz, points to a pivotal trend in housing development. This collaboration allows for the realization of projects with reduced waste and faster delivery times, critical factors in addressing the urgent demand for affordable urban housing.

On the evolution of construction approaches:

"So any shift that happened after that, I will say it's more of an inevitable evolution of the product as we are on a continuous path to look for more efficient ways to make housing that is more affordable."

Joseph's reflections on co-living's evolution towards a more design-focused, rather than community-oriented, approach underline the need for practical solutions that prioritize accessibility and dignity in housing. This perspective shift emphasizes the role of design and architecture in creating living spaces that are not just affordable but also conducive to quality living.

The emphasis on productizing development, by standardizing housing products to streamline the creation of new homes, speaks to Madelon's innovative approach to scalability and efficiency in housing development. This strategy, coupled with the utilization of data and experience to inform development decisions, offers a blueprint for how technology and industry knowledge can converge to address housing challenges.

Madelon’s project in Northeast Los Angeles, utilizing ADU laws and SB9 legislation, showcases an agile response to emerging opportunities for densifying housing in urban areas. By focusing on the "missing middle" housing spectrum, Madelon contributes to diversifying the urban housing stock, making the case for the scalability of such models across various urban settings.

The project’s commitment to environmental sustainability, through the use of greener building practices and materials like mass timber, further highlights the potential for innovative construction methods to address not only affordability but also sustainability challenges in urban development.

On the impact of sustainable development:

"We're not doing this in a huge project that if a single thing goes wrong, like everything, it's a disaster. This scale allows us to test different things and while also run a risk at the end, it's not as risky as bigger buildings."

Ruiz’s reflections on housing as a fundamental component of urban functionality and innovation serve as a poignant reminder of the sector's potential impact on societal well-being. By framing housing development as a collective effort involving multiple stakeholders, Madelon's story underscores the importance of collaboration between the private sector, policymakers, and communities in creating comprehensive solutions to the housing affordability crisis.

On the collective effort required for housing solutions:

"It cannot be done alone. Of course, there's the private sector that does housing, and it can have a positive impact on everything. But the fact is that we need so much housing in our cities that it needs to be a collective effort, at least in our cities, to have the impact that he needs to have at the scale that he needs to have."

Catch-22s be damned. Where there are people like Ruiz, there's always hope.