Building Tomorrow: A Special Look at the Future of Housing

“Building Tomorrow” is a special collaboration between Marketplace and This Old House Radio Hour that asks a simple but urgent question: How do we build homes that can last the next hundred years?

From wildfire rebuilds to factory-built housing, this hour explores how new materials, new methods, and new ideas about community are reshaping the future of housing in America. Hosted by Jenn Largesse and Marketplace’s David Brancaccio, the episode blends reporting, lived experience, and hard science to show what’s possible right now.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• A massive prefab factory where homes are built like cars on an assembly line.
• A disaster research campus where engineers crash-test houses against hurricanes, hail, and wildfire.
• A cutting-edge micro factory using software and small factories to build homes faster, locally, and at scale.
• Touring a pioneering cross-laminated timber home built as a living case study in low-carbon construction.
• How a 100-year-old house is transformed into a net-zero, future-ready home.
• A tiny-house community redefining retirement, aging, and what “home” really means.

Note: In the segment featuring Aloe Blacc's prefabricated home, the exterior is made of cement fiber, but the interior is not. The home's fire resilience comes from a combination of steel framing, fiber cement siding, and triple-pane windows.