May 28, 2026

Responding to a national housing affordability crisis, student teams will collaborate with builder partners and industry professionals to develop a full-scale home designed to reduce the total cost of housing and culminating in a public exhibition in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October 2027. 

The Housing Innovation Challenge, a national design-build competition uniting students, builders, and innovators to develop solutions that reduce the total cost of housing, announced the Carolina Collaborative, a multi-university team comprised of the Appalachian State University, North Carolina State University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was selected as one of 10 student led teams to move forward in its inaugural cycle. The Challenge is designed to accelerate promising housing solutions that can scale beyond a single project or market. It is led by founding partners Housing Innovation Alliance, Meritage Homes, and Home Technology Ventures, with the City of Charlotte, North Carolina serving as the inaugural host city.  

Given the housing affordability challenges across North Carolina, the Carolina Collaborative team is thrilled to be paired with a homebuilding company to help advance its innovative housing concept toward a full-scale build and public exhibition in Charlotte.  

"Now that the 10 teams are announced, the Challenge steps into a critical second phase where each team's design proposal transitions from an idea on paper to a real-life proof of concept," said Bobby Vance, Program Director and Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech. "For students, that means the opportunity to test their ideas against the realities that drive housing costs, from constructability and performance to how a home can deliver long-term value for the people who live in it."  

Advancing teams and builder-partner pairings were announced during the 19th anniversary of the Housing Innovation Summit. The 10 teams advancing in the inaugural Housing Innovation Challenge include (in alphabetical order): Appalachian State University + North Carolina State University + University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Clemson University; Georgia Tech; Harvard University; University of Houston; Kean University; University of North Carolina at Charlotte; University of Texas at Austin; Virginia Tech; and Washington State University. 

"This is such an exciting opportunity for students," said Professor Anita Brown-Graham, lead coordinator of Carolina Across 100 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "We already have cross-sector teams from 22 North Carolina counties collaborating with our campus to address housing issues. Building on that work, we are now collaborating with students on sister campuses through this Challenge."   

Supporting the students at UNC Chapel Hill include the UNC School of Government's ncIMPACT Initiative and the Kenan-Flagler School of Business' Leonard W. Wood Center for Real Estate Studies. The supports at North Carolina State University include the Pappas Real Estate Development Program and the College of Design. Appalachian State University provided expertise from the Department of Sustainable Technology & the Built Environment. 

In the first phase of the Challenge, the student teams developed and submitted design proposals to innovate housing and address affordability. Selections were evaluated through a competitive review process using the H.O.M.E. Framework (cost of Homes, cost of Occupancy, cost of Maintenance, access to Equity), which looks beyond upfront price to consider how design, delivery, and ongoing costs shape affordability over time. A panel of representatives from the City of Charlotte, Housing Innovation Alliance, Home Technology Ventures, and national academic and industry experts reviewed the designs. In the second phase of the Challenge, the 10 teams advancing will each work alongside builder-partners and industry collaborators to refine their concepts and build full-scale homes in Charlotte.  

The Carolina Collaborative will partner with the Harvest Center of Charlotte to build at Brookhill Village alongside the Georgia Tech University and Harvard University teams. Brookhill Village is an historic African American neighborhood south of Uptown Charlotte. 

For student teams, the Challenge is more than a design competition. It is an applied learning opportunity tied to one of today's most urgent issues: the rising cost of housing. By asking students to work within the same constraints as homebuilders, the Challenge is bridging academic ingenuity and the realities of housing delivery while creating a stronger multidisciplinary pipeline of future professionals equipped to navigate all sectors of the industry.  

About the Housing Innovation Challenge 

The Housing Innovation Challenge was created to generate housing solutions that reduce the total cost of housing over time through design, delivery, performance, construction methods, materials, and long-term viability. Its coalition model brings universities and homebuilding industry partners together in a host city to introduce innovations that reduce costs and improve what can be delivered in practice.  

"The Challenge reflects a core belief of the Housing Innovation Alliance: that meaningful progress happens when innovation is connected to execution," said Dennis Steigerwalt, President of the Housing Innovation Alliance. "With a coalition uniting academic talent and industry expertise around a shared goal, the Challenge has profound potential to discover housing solutions that can actually influence how housing gets delivered."  

Designed as a 10-year journey with stopping points in five cities, the Challenge is structured to compound lessons learned from previous cycles, with each cycle lasting two years. This inaugural cycle will culminate in October 2027 with a public exhibition in Charlotte, where the homes will be showcased through tours, industry workshops, research activities, and policy discussions before each is intended to be occupied by residents. In doing so, the Challenge will leave a legacy in Charlotte while informing a broader catalog of replicable housing approaches. 

 The Challenge is being brought to Charlotte by industry collaborators and was established by three founding partners: Housing Innovation Alliance, an industry convening and collaboration platform; Home Technology Ventures, which backs housing innovation and helps connect new approaches to adoption; and Meritage Homes, a national homebuilder helping translate ideas into buildable solutions. Together, they unite expertise across the housing value chain to accelerate the adoption of replicable solutions. For more information, visit www.hic.live. 

About the Housing Innovation Alliance 

The Housing Innovation Alliance is a national crowd‑accelerated innovation platform dedicated to reducing housing costs and expanding supply. We unite builders, developers, manufacturers, technologists, investors, universities, and public‑sector leaders to increase supply, reduce total cost, improve quality, and maintain healthy margins across the industry. Established in 2008, the Alliance represents a forward‑thinking network of more than 3,000 organizations driving market transformation across homebuilding and community development. Our platform delivers impact through three core capabilities to lead the industry forward.  

• Intelligence – Proprietary insights, data, and industry convenings that enable knowledge sharing and informed decision-making across our national network.  

• Implementation – Facilitation of pilot programs and bespoke development projects that demonstrate scalable solutions and leverage emerging technologies in real-world environments. 

• Investment – Early-stage capital, mentorship, and board-level guidance that support emerging companies and accelerate innovation adoption. 

For more information, visit housinginnovationalliance.com.  

Carolina Across 100 is a five year, pan-University effort at UNC-Chapel Hill that partners with communities across North Carolina to address complex, long-term challenges caused or exacerbated by COVID-19. CX100 is coordinated by the ncIMPACT Initiative at the UNC School of Government. Carolina Across 100 is funded by the Office of the Chancellor and private foundations.

The ncIMPACT Initiative coordinates Carolina Across 100. ncIMPACT is a statewide initiative launched by the UNC School of Government in 2017 to help local communities use data and evidence to improve conditions and inform decision making. Visit ncimpact.org.