ReMo Habitats
The project will design and build affordable, modular, high-performance, highly manufacturable, and rapidly deployable homes.
ReMo Homes
Recipient
Recipient Location
24th
Senate District
66th
Assembly District
$714,235
Amount Spent
Active
Project Status
Project Update
The project began in late 2023 and has made significant progress over the past year. The Technical Advisory Committee has been assembled, bringing together expertise from construction, design, supply chain, and advanced manufacturing.
The project team has been working closely with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) on measurement & verification, technology commercialization (Integrated MEP Pod), and refining Design for Mass Manufacturing & Assembly techniques. Our collaboration now includes designing a standardized home that can be deployed in any climate zone in California.
Through the end of 2024, we conducted a small factory demonstration, focusing on reducing the bill of materials (BOM) and labor requirements. We’re using a performance-based building code compliance approach to minimize both structural and energy efficiency-related materials. To further streamline assembly, we’re incorporating automotive-style plug-and-play joinery for wall panels, roof panels, solar panels, and other components—targeting a 40% reduction in labor hours per square foot compared to traditional construction. Next steps include adding low-voltage DC solar panels and other key elements to complete the demonstration.
Additionally, we’ve started collaborating with IBHS to ensure our homes meet their Wildfire Prepared Plus Home Standard. Given the recent LA wildfires, we’re evaluating opportunities to demonstrate in affected areas, supporting the rebuilding process. We’re also exploring increasing the air tightness of our building envelope to meet Passivhaus standards, aiming for an ACH50 below 3.0.
ReMo Homes continues coordinating with Native American tribes on demonstration site locations, furthering our commitment to sustainable and resilient housing solutions.
The Issue
The need for resilient, fire-resistant homes is more urgent than ever. Our collaboration with IBHS ensures our homes meet the Wildfire Prepared Plus Home Standard, reducing rebuilding costs after disasters. We're also working with NREL to integrate low-voltage DC solar panels, improving energy resilience for communities in fire hazard zones.
In rural and tribal areas, infrastructure gaps continue to limit new housing. We’re addressing this by coordinating with Native American tribes on demonstration sites and refining our construction approach to reduce costs and build faster.
Project Innovation
This Agreement funds the development of three ReMo Habitats homes—two for installation on separate sites and one as an in-factory prototype. ReMo blends aerospace, lean manufacturing, and construction to create affordable, high-performance, and rapidly deployable modular homes. Unlike typical demonstrations, this project applies best-in-class product development from advanced manufacturing, focusing on scalability and continuous improvement. The goal is to position zero-carbon homes for mass production while exceeding Title 24 (2022) standards.
Project Goals
Project Benefits
ReMo’s approach is to blend “Lean Design + Lean Manufacturing + Automotive-Style Supplier Ecosystems” to create affordable, modular, high-performance, highly manufacturable, and rapidly deployable “Habitats”. Unlike many previous demonstration projects, ReMo’s goal is to adopt best-in-class product development methods from the advanced manufacturing industry harnessing the benefits of manufacturing scalability, AI, Digital Twin, componentization, and continuous improvement in everything done on this project to position zero carbon homes (exceed Title 24 (2022)) for mass production.
This project creates affordable housing and decarbonization benefits for DACs and under-resourced communities, while providing affordable, reliable energy to benefit customers and the electricity grid. ReMo will collaborate with local BIPOC AEC professionals, global manufacturers, and national research labs to achieve a replicable and inclusive process. The project’s ultimate goal is to demonstrate decarbonization as economically accessible and ready for commercialization in the affordable-housing industry. The project will address operational barriers and workforce opportunities of residents by locating the factories in DACs, LIC, and minority-majority communities.
The project’s main goals are to:
Produce the first affordable net-zero carbon, fire resistive modular home in California under $250 per sq. ft.
Demonstrate that high volume manufacturing in modular construction can achieve advanced manufacturing industry levels - 120 man-hours per ReMo module (vs. industry 400+) and 1 month or less onsite duration (vs. industry 3-6 month)
Removing approximately 90% of gypsum used in ReMo homes to expedite manufacturing speed by up to 80%.
Implement scale-up sales and production to 10,000 units per year and CO2e offsets of 3.5 billion tons by 2033
Reliability
The ReMo Habitat will have envelope integrated photovoltaics covering the walls and roof (~20kW) as well as a 13.5kW battery storage. The energy system controls will be grid interactive and virtual power plant enabled providing energy and operational security.
Safety
The ReMo Habitat will also be a safer home as is manufactured from non-combustible recycled steel and light gauge VIPP in-fill paneling.
Key Project Members
Vamsi Kumar Kolta
Subrecipients
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Chemehuevi Indian Tribe
Verdical Group
Pacoima Beautiful
Mass Timod, LLC
ICC Evaluation services
CRATE Modular
United Development Services
Poon Design, Inc.
Susie Wong Public Affairs
ADL Ventures, LLC
Domatic, LLC
Budlong & Associates, Inc.
Match Partners
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
ReMo Homes
Mass Timod, LLC
ADL Ventures, LLC
