03 Make
Make Baltimore a city of makers: attract manufacturers with a predictable demand pipeline and less friction in starting a for-profit microfactory here, and cultivate the regional fabricators who supply them.
A microfactory is a small, flexible factory close to where homes are built. BMOD aims to attract one to Baltimore, making wall panels and room-sized modules with local suppliers and local workers.
Outcomes we are working toward
A microfactory feasibility plan
Potential sites & incentives report
Local supply-chain partnerships report
A connected network of regional manufacturers and fabricators
The path to a microfactory
First, an integrated Industrialized Housing Delivery (IHD) team would work with a manufacturer to develop the product platform. Careful existing-conditions assessments would guide the design, and together they would deliver the first projects. Next, that manufacturer would set up a Baltimore microfactory, tied into the local supply chain and aligned with the future NIBS–MOD X Housing System Certification Program.
What we have learned so far
Robots are optional. On a 2025 exchange in Scotland, we saw factories that ranged from highly automated lines to teams working at tables. A microfactory does not need a huge investment in machines to get to work. Read what we learned in Scotland.
Hear how a microfactory works. Watch Workshop 03, Conceptualizing a Baltimore Microfactory.
On your project
Manufacturers that can price and build. BMOD offers a project’s team suggestions from BMOD’s future vetted, unranked list of manufacturers for the owner to consider; cost reviews from several offsite manufacturers and from traditional site-built contractors, which BMOD requests and coordinates, so the owner can compare factory-built with site-built homes with the numbers in hand; connections to the onsite team, through suggestions from BMOD’s future list of vetted builders or coordination with the builder the owner chooses; and connections linking the manufacturer to a local supply chain of fabricators, activated in the neighborhood or elsewhere in the city.
Who should get in touch
Manufacturers and suppliers, fabricators, economic development agencies, and owners of industrial sites in the Baltimore region.