Since its inception in 2017, Boxabl has revolutionized the modular housing industry with its innovative approach to solving one of the most persistent challenges in construction—scaling mass production. Founded by Paolo and Galiano Tiramani with the vision of producing homes in the same way factories churn out cars or electronics, Boxabl seeks to make high-quality, affordable housing accessible to all. The company’s key innovation lies in its ability to fold room modules, drastically reducing shipping costs and paving the way for large-scale production that could reshape the housing landscape.

 Galiano (left) and Paolo Tiramanim co-founders of Boxabl

Boxabl’s journey from concept to reality hasn’t been without its hurdles. While the company anticipated manufacturing would be their biggest challenge, it quickly became clear that navigating the complex web of building regulations across different states was a far more significant obstacle. Boxabl’s leadership has been relentless in their pursuit of overcoming these regulatory barriers, advocating for a standardized national building code that could streamline the factory-built housing approval process and accelerate production on a broader scale.

Despite these challenges, Boxabl remains at the forefront of innovation in the modular construction industry. Their flagship product, the Casita, offers a glimpse into the company’s larger ambitions, with plans to expand beyond small, standalone units to interconnected and stackable room modules that could cater to a variety of housing needs. By continuously improving their designs and working closely with regulatory bodies, Boxabl aims to prove that mass-produced homes are not only viable but essential in addressing the growing affordable housing crisis in the U.S. and beyond.

Gary Fleisher, co-founder Offsite Innovator: Boxabl has made significant strides since its founding in 2017. Can you share more about the innovative decision-making process behind the launch of Boxabl? What challenges did you encounter while scaling up?

Galiano Tiramani, co-founder of Boxabl: The idea behind Boxabl was to solve housing by mass producing buildings in a factory. Most other modern products (like cars, TVs, iphones and sneakers) take advantage of a factory and an assembly line to make products rapidly at the lowest cost, but about 90% of houses are still built on site. So why is that the case? Our theory was that since houses are so big, they cant be easily shipped long distances from the factory. Most factory built houses are shipped with special wide load permits and follow cars since they dont fit on the road, this increases the shipping costs dramatically.

Gary: Why is that a problem?

Galiano: Because if you cant ship far from your factory, you cant have mass production, and this means most house factories are small regional factories that dont take advantage of scale. The first  innovation we needed at Boxabl was to solve the shipping problem so we could mass produce the houses to drive down costs. We achieved this by folding up the empty space in the rooms we manufactured so we could ship them in a cost effective manner. The room modules we make are finished in the factory with windows, electric, plumbing, flooring and more that can ship to site and be setup in a few hours. This innovation is critical because it will allow us to scale up production in an attempt to bring down costs. Most car factories put out one car per minute, our goal at Boxabl is to match that level of efficiency with houses. 

When we started the company we thought that manufacturing would be our biggest challenge. It turned out that wasnt the case. We were able to scale up manufacturing quickly and deliver on our first order of 156 houses to the federal government. Our biggest road block turned out to be… Regulations. Different laws and regulatory agencies exist that slow down and block housing in the USA. Anyone that has ever tried to build a housing development understands that its very difficult and can take several years to achieve… If its even allowed. In most cases, applying for a permit to built something, like an apartment, complex will be met with pushback from neighbors and local government. A builder will be faced with town hall meetings where people try to stop the project, elected government officials trying to stop it, and then later building department officials adding many restrictions added cost and timeline delays to the project. The builder will be required to wait on building inspectors to come visit the project and inspect it at many stages during the building process.

These restrictions exist for regular building construction thats done on site, when you add factory built buildings into the process the situation gets worse. An extra level of regulation exists soley for factory builders. Most states have an additional regulatory agency that adds more restrictions and delays into the process. This includes factory inspections, quality control programs, building plan review and more. All of these extra steps must be completed before a builder even tries to apply for a building permit. They can add years to the process and stop a house factory in its tracks. Did you know that the building code is almost 1000 pages long? And many sections are up for interpretation, building codes also differ by state. So creating one building plan that works in multiple states can be very challenging and introduce further delays. Factory home builders must also apply for each of these state programs and go through the process one by one, so that makes it even more difficult to mass produce a product.

The list of regulatory challenges doesn’t stop here… Many other issues exist that have made it difficult for modular builders to succeed. I would say regulation is one of the biggest reasons why most modular builders have failed over the years. At Boxabl we realize this is a challenge, but also an opportunity to drive down costs if we can solve these issues. We are working hard with state regulators to show them that a standardized mass produced product relives the risks that these regulations are setup to avoid. We want to see a national building code thats the same for every state, and a national process for modular house approval that can reduce the roadblocks we see. I think Boxabls scale and standardized product uniquely positions us to solve these regulatory issues.

Gary: Affordable housing is a crucial focus for Boxabl. How are your latest initiatives positioning Boxabl as a leader in this space, and what role do your new facilities play in accelerating production to meet growing demand?

Galiano: Affordable housing is a crucial focus for Boxabl. How are your latest initiatives positioning Boxabl as a leader in this space, and what role do your new facilities play in accelerating production to meet growing demand?

Boxabl has big plans, we are trying to prove the concept of mass-produced housing at our first 3 factory buildings here in Las Vegas. We are dialing in our technology, testing the market, improving our manufacturing methods and scaling up fast. The goal right now is to show the market that we can make it work, then continue commanding resources to scale. Housing is a big problem with millions of housing unit shortage here in the USA. We think the only way to fix this is to scale and brute force the problem. 

Gary: There’s been considerable excitement about Boxabl’s innovative folding homes. Can you tell us more about the new advancements in your designs or manufacturing processes that have the potential to revolutionize the industry?

Galiano: Since we started we have been continually improving our process, our product and our operations. Learning how to navigate regulatory challenges and drive down costs. We are constantly updating our product design to lower cost and increase ratings. We are investing in new automated manufacturing equipment. 

Gary: You’ve previously mentioned partnerships and collaborations as key to Boxabl’s growth. How have your recent partnerships, like the one with Catholic Charities and creating a builder network, shaped your approach to providing affordable housing solutions?

Galiano: At Boxabl we are always looking for competent partners to help push projects to the finish line. Boxabl is a room module manufacturer, we aren’t necessarily interested in developing real estate projects ourselves. We seek developers to be our customers and buy our products hoping that they see the value in speeding up and lowering costs on a project. We have sales team that fields leads from developers everyday to find the best partners who can create amazing projects. We are very happy to have been able to work with Catholic Charities and hope to do more projects after this pilot project is proven a success.

Gary: Boxabl has always aimed for innovation. What new features, technology integrations, or construction methods are you currently exploring to stay ahead of the curve in modular housing?

Galiano: We have lots of exciting stuff in the pipeline. For example if you look at chart that shows our material and labor cost to produce our product you can see that it continues to trend down with lower costs. 

You might have heard of the Casita, its our first product, a 361 square ft house thats a studio apartment, bed, couch, kitchen and bathroom. https://www.boxabl.com/casita On important thing to mention is that Boxabl is not just a tiny house company. Our plans extend far beyond the “Casita”. This is our foot in the door, but we plan for a larger building system where different room modules in different sizes can connect and stack to create larger homes. The idea is that Boxabl house might look no different than the house you live in now. 

Although we have lots of exciting stuff planned, unfortunately I cant discuss much detail on new stuff before it has been announced to the public for our SEC compliance.

Gary: As Boxabl continues to scale, what are your biggest goals and priorities for the company in the next few years, and how do you envision the broader impact of your work on the affordable housing crisis?

Galiano: Recently we established a dealer network. This is basically a list of local contractors that can help our individual customers get a Casita installed in their backyard. https://www.boxabl.com/directory We urge anyone that wants to sell Casitas to sign up for our dealer program. This will give them access to our customer pipleline and allow them to sell Casitas.

Gary: I want to thank Galiano Tiramani for taking the time to share his innovative idea turned into a reality. It hasn’t been an easy ride for Boxabl but positive things are happening for Galiano and Paolo, his father, efforts to bring affordable housing to the US,