Expanding Housing-Production Capacity in Appalachia: Participatory Pathways for Industrialized Off-Site Construction (IOC)

Appalachia faces a housing challenge that is not only a shortage of affordable units, but also a regional housing-production capacity problem shaped by workforce availability, financing, regulation, market awareness, technology readiness, and institutional coordination. This study examines how participatory stakeholder workshops can identify and prioritize regional constraints and strategies for using industrialized off-site construction (IOC) to expand housing delivery capacity in Appalachia. The study used a three-step qualitative methodology: a regional context review, seven participatory design workshops across Appalachian locations, and agreement testing and a practitioner advisory review of workshop-derived themes. A total of 129 stakeholders participated, representing construction, manufacturing, modular construction, education, workforce development, economic development, local government, finance, and related sectors. Workshop data were analyzed through structured prompts, affinity clustering, PICK chart prioritization, independent re-clustering, and Cohen’s κ agreement testing. Across the workshops, institutional and industry stakeholders identified five common conditions that, in their view, shape IOC’s potential in their regions: Education & Training, Policy & Regulation Framework, Marketing & Awareness, Financing & Funding, and Technology & Innovation. In PICK prioritization, participants rated marketing and awareness as high impact and easier to implement, and workforce, policy, financing, and technology conditions as harder. In discussion, they described the harder conditions as requiring longer coordination. The study contributes a replicable participatory process for diagnosing regional housing-production constraints and positioning IOC as a context-dependent pathway for improving housing delivery, affordability, and access.