DIGITAL announces new collaborations to boost housing production in British Columbia

VANCOUVER, BC, March 18, 2025 /CNW/ - DIGITAL, Canada's Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies, is advancing 11 solutions to accelerate housing production in British Columbia. These projects are supported under DIGITAL's Housing Growth Innovation (HGI) program, which was launched in November 2023 with a $9 million investment from the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs. The program leverages collaborative innovation across multiple parties to build and deploy scalable, sustainable solutions to grow B.C.'s housing production capacity.

"DIGITAL is excited to announce these investments through our Housing Growth Innovation program that will accelerate the development and deployment of technologies designed to deliver more houses, faster across British Columbia," said Sue Paish, CEO of DIGITAL. "Working alongside industry, governments and housing community partners, DIGITAL ignites new ideas that support the development and deployment of sustainable, housing solutions for the benefit of all British Columbians." 

"We can't continue to use the same tactics and expect different results. We must innovate and improve permit times and speed up construction to achieve our government's goal of delivering more homes for people," said Ravi Kahlon, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs. "We are proud to support DIGITAL, whose vision aligns with ours in speeding up housing production by leveraging digital tools and technologies. I look forward to seeing the transformative impact of these HGI projects that will help unlock more homes for people, faster."

Seven new projects that are part of the second cycle of investments under DIGITAL's HGI program are focused on optimizing supply chain performance and utilizing advanced production technologies to increase housing productivity. These include:

• addy in collaboration with Tomo Spaces and City of Mission aims to develop a case study for accelerating the development of rental housing for essential workers in the health, safety and education sectors within the communities they serve across British Columbia.
• B Collective Homes in collaboration with SvN Architects + Planners aims to develop industry-driven digital educational content to bridge the knowledge gap in wood panelized offsite construction.
• mddl in collaboration with SRI Homes and FAAS Architecture aims to demonstrate how their pre-approved, modular-ready design within the City of Kelowna's Fast-Track program can be deployed to create multiple rental units on traditional single-family lots, helping to de-risk the project type for the local development market.
• Perkins&Will Canada Architects in collaboration with ASPECT Structural Engineers, Introba, Credos Project Management and the School of Interactive Arts & Technology at Simon Fraser University aims to design and validate a scalable housing solution using mass timber, modular construction and off-site manufacturing techniques guided by computational design methods.
• OK Laminators ("Mercer Okanagan") aims to develop a free and publicly accessible pre-design tool that displays digital simulations of different building topologies using cold-formed steel (CFS) and cross-laminated timber (CLT) hybrid building systems.
• Wesgroup in collaboration with Velgor Construction aims to integrate digital manufacturing technologies to produce labeled precut steel studs and prefabricated wall panels in B.C.
• Radical I/O in collaboration with SimpliCity, the City of Salmon Arm and the District of North Vancouver aims to develop a report assessing municipal digital readiness for housing permits by surveying municipalities across B.C. and bringing clarity to the digital permitting processes and technologies they use.

Previously announced in the fall of 2024, projects under the first cycle of investment in DIGITAL's HGI program are currently supporting housing production throughout British Columbia, including:

• Cloudpermit in collaboration with TedfordAI and the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) is modernizing building inspections with artificial intelligence (AI).
• The Malahat Nation in collaboration with Archistar and Zaha Hadid Architects is combining 3D generative design with a Nation-led approach to master community planning.
• Nak'azdli Development Corporation in collaboration with Deadwood Innovations, Prakash Architects and Gehloff Consulting are utilizing densified aspen mass timber panels for home building as a low-cost, high-performance alternative.
• Green Metrics Technologies in collaboration with Tandem Solutions and Liquid is developing a procurement support system that increases supply chain transparency and efficiency for housing production.

Interviews with sector leaders and representatives from organizations partnering on projects under the HGI program are available via DIGITAL's recently launched podcast Blueprint for Growth: Innovation in Housing. The podcast is available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Background

Since 2018, DIGITAL has co-invested $158 million in B.C.-led projects that have spurred a total of $375 million within sectors crucial to the province's economic growth. These sectors include natural resources, health, workforce development, housing and more. In addition to accelerating the commercialization and adoption of technologies supported through DIGITAL-funded projects, small-to-medium enterprises in B.C. that have worked with DIGITAL have gone on to raise over $843 million in follow-on funding.

About DIGITAL  

DIGITAL is Canada's leader in accelerating the development and commercialization of Canadian-made digital technologies that address some of the most pressing needs across our economy and society. DIGITAL's model of collaborative innovation and co-investment advances the success of Canadian businesses through the development, adoption and commercialization of Canadian-made technologies while also growing a workforce that is skilled to fill the jobs of a growing digital economy.  

DIGITAL brings together businesses, academia, community and government agencies to solve some of industry and society's biggest challenges – better and faster than any single organization can do on its own. Through the powerful model that combines cross-sector collaboration, Canadian IP creation and results-based co-investment, we unlock the potential of Canadian industry to lead and succeed in the digital world.  

Ahead of the curve starts here. For more information, visit digitalsupercluster.ca  

SOURCE DIGITAL

DIGITAL Press Contact: Sydney Redpath, [email protected]