The Future is (Pre)Fab

In a studio in the CBC Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, beneath a set of glaring stage lights, Parinaz Pakniat, founder and CEO of PakVille, has just dumped a recycling-bin-worth of plastic bottles on a stage in front of six of Canada’s top entrepreneurs.

“Canada has a housing crisis,” she says. “We need to build 3.5 million more homes by year 2030. At the same time, we do have a plastic waste crisis.” She motions at the plastic bottles on the floor. Based on the entrepreneurs’ faces, they don’t see the connection.

What Pakniat is building up to is the innovative new technology her company is using to construct modular homes. As for the stage and lights, she’s delivering her pitch on the TV show Dragon’s Den, asking for $500,000 in exchange for a 10 percent stake in PakVille.

But despite the flare and theatrics, Pakniat is addressing a serious problem in Canada: housing. Forty-five percent of Canadians are very concerned about housing affordability amidst rising costs, according to Statistics Canada. And with good reason. A report from Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada shows that the number of unhoused people has nearly doubled between 2018 and 2024, reaching nearly 60,000 people on any given night.

Traditional homebuilders can’t keep up with demand, keeping prices high. Throw in the fact that the construction industry is Canada’s third largest polluter (after oil/gas and transportation) and you’ve got an argument for some much needed change.

To address the housing issue, the federal government has pledged to double Canada’s rate of residential construction over the next 10 years to 500,000 homes per year. As part of the plan, the federal government has zeroed in on prefabricated and modular housing, pledging $25 billion in debt financing and $1 billion in equity financing to Canadian prefabricated home builders.

Prefabricated and modular homes have been around for years, booming after World War II to solve a housing shortage. In both modular and prefab, the building happens off-site, streamlined in factories before being transported to the property. The main difference is that modular homes are, in large part, manufactured and assembled in a facility then transported to the site, whereas prefab involves building components — walls, floors, ceilings — that are transported to the site and then assembled. According to the federal government, these types of homes can reduce construction times by up to 50%, costs by up to 20 %, and emissions by up to 22 % compared to traditional construction methods.

Machine-powered technology, such as computer-controlled saws, drive these savings through batch cutting and designs that use uniform components. As a result, the work gets done much faster than with human labour.

Steven Beites, director of the Institute for Northern Housing Innovation at Laurentian University compares modular and prefab building to iPhones or vehicles — all factory-made and ripe for efficiency. 

“There are studies that have shown that we are not building homes with any more efficiency today than we were in 1950,” he says. Construction’s outdated methods are struggling to attract young tech-savvy adults, leaving the industry heavily reliant on human labour, which makes it difficult to hit Canada’s targets.

Compared to the 12 to 18 months it takes to build a home the traditional way, factory-built homes are typically finished in three to six months, and are just as sturdy, if not more so. In fact, the machines ensure the home’s components fit more snugly together. Plus, construction isn’t affected by winter weather. As for concerns about size, there’s no limit. The components for a high rise can just as easily be built in a prefab factory. 

Prefab and modular builds have already proven successful in other countries. Between 80 to 85% of Sweden’s detached dwellings are prefab, compared to Canada’s 6%. And when it comes to sustainability, this style of construction significantly reduces waste. According to Beites, 25 to 45% of waste in Canadian landfills is from construction sites. This is often due to human error. If a mistake is made on a segment of a house, it has to be redone, using excess material and creating more waste. Whereas with factory builds, the machines create the same components each time, and any additional materials can be used to build the next house rather than being disposed of or transported to another building site.

The only major barrier Beites sees is convincing traditional builders to make the switch. Right now, there aren’t enough prefab and modular companies to meet Canada’s housing needs. To achieve this, traditional builders need to get on board. But with so much housing demand, there’s no incentive for them to invest in a prefab factory or equipment. That’s why Beites says governments should offer financial incentives such as tax breaks and grants to speed up the transition.

Although, if traditional builders don’t make the switch, they may, eventually, be overtaken by innovators like Pakniat. A civil engineer by trade with a specialty in building bridges, Pakniat started PakVille with modular tiny homes and has since scaled up. 

Part of what sets PakVille apart is its building materials. Pakniat and her team created PakVert panels with a foam core created from recycled plastic bottles sandwiched between fiberglass sheeting. “That material has been used in the wind turbine industry for about 17 to 18 years, and it’s made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles,” she says, noting that it’s both strong and durable. Each panel contains 3,000 recycled plastic bottles. 

And thanks to how easily the panels fit together, Pakniat says they can assemble one of their homes in two to three weeks. The panels’ light weight makes them easy to transport and, once on site, they can be assembled by hand. 

By reducing time on the ground, PakVille’s homes are 30 to 35 % less expensive than traditionally built homes. For instance, their two-bedroom PakMonaco model costs $198,000. Whereas a two-bedroom detached home in a Canadian city such as Toronto will cost you closer to $1 million. 

And they are more than equipped to handle Canadian winters. In terms of insulation, the PakVert panels exceed Canadian building code requirements with an R-value of 30. This value remains stable over time as the panels don’t absorb moisture, unlike conventional forms of insulation. Plus, the way the panels slot together prevents air infiltration. Pakniat describes the homes as being sealed like a fridge. When the panels were tested on a house built in Montreal, Pakniat found that it cut down heating costs by 15 to 20 per cent, compared to a traditionally built home.

PakVille isn’t the only company addressing the housing issue with prefab or modular builds. Toronto-based Daylun is using bamboo wood panels and environmentally friendly vegetable glue to build its prefab homes. And Simple Life Homes in Brighton, Ont., has introduced energy-efficient, prefab passive house designs that use airtight construction and strategic window placement to regulate indoor temperatures, relying less on heating and cooling systems.

These innovative approaches are paying off. Pakniat’s appearance on Dragon’s Den is proof. PakVille won over the Dragons, receiving offers from Property Brother Drew Scott and angel investor Manjit Minhas.

Not bad considering the company only launched in 2024. It’s already booked $60 million worth of projects, including 10 cottages outside of Quebec city and a set of modular washrooms for the city of Candiac, Que. Pakniat says the goal is to be producing 10,000 homes per year by 2030.

“We’re even talking to housing providers in other countries, like Nigeria,” she says. “The beauty is that we can easily put our panels in containers and ship them literally anywhere in the world.”

Read more: Writer John Lorinc gives a roundup of options for sustainably housing the homeless.