Ivory Innovations 2026 Hack-A-House Winners Representing Universities Across the Country Advance Creative Solutions to Housing Affordability

Students from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, UC Berkeley and the University of Arizona earn top honors for ideas addressing housing finance, approvals and construction

SALT LAKE CITY, Oct. 1, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Ivory Innovations, an operating foundation and academic center based at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business, has announced its 2026 Hack-A-House winners, including ideas ranging from helping manufactured home owners build wealth to streamlining affordable housing approvals and using modular construction to create workforce housing in underutilized commercial spaces.

Hack-A-House is a 24-hour student pitch competition to solve the affordable housing crisis. This year's contest drew 387 student registrants, the most ever in the competition's 7-year history, from 64 schools. It was sponsored by Think Wood, JPMorganChase, and Zions Bank.

"Housing affordability demands fresh ideas," said Ian Cahoon, Director of Strategic Projects at Ivory Innovations. "Hack-A-House was created to inspire the housing industry's next generation of leaders to meet that demand. This year's teams brought creativity and practical problem-solving, proposing solutions with the potential to lower costs, expand access and help more people build financial security through housing. That combination of imagination and attention to real-world barriers is exactly what we need to move housing affordability forward."

The competition recognized winners and runners-up in three categories: Finance, Policy & Regulatory Reform, and Construction & Design. Each winner will receive $3,000 and the opportunity to pitch for a $2,000 Grand Prize. An additional team received the ThinkWood Housing Innovation Award for the best wood-based construction solution.

The competition will also grant a People's Choice award to the team whose submission receives the most votes via the Hack-A-House website. Voting is open to the public and closes Oct. 5. To view this year's submissions, cast a vote, or learn more about the competition, visit https://www.hackahouse.org/

Finance
Winner: Hacking Heels
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Hacking Heels focused on manufactured homes as an underutilized source of affordable housing. The team proposed a solution to a key barrier that can prevent manufactured-home owners from building wealth, earning recognition for addressing the connection between housing affordability and long-term financial opportunity.

Runner-up: SteadyRoof 
The University of Melbourne
SteadyRoof proposed a financial structure that connects more resilient building methods with insurance savings. Judges praised the team's thoughtful approach to translating investments in resilience into financial benefits.

Policy & Regulatory Reform
Winner: Alare 
University of California, Berkeley
Alare proposed streamlining approvals for qualifying affordable-housing projects in Colorado by conducting local reviews concurrently where possible and consolidating feedback into one response per review cycle. Judges highlighted the pilot's potential to scale and its focus on reforming the review process itself, rather than simply introducing new software.

Runner-up: High CALiber
University of California, Berkeley
High CALiber proposed an approach combining concurrent construction and inspection, Low-Income Housing Tax Credit and market incentives, and a single state-regulated inspection point at the factory for preassembled, closed components. Judges recognized the proposal's potential to significantly reduce construction and development costs for affordable housing.

Construction & Design
Winner: Outside the Box
University of Arizona
Outside the Box proposed a modular construction solution designed to address three interconnected challenges: improving the modular construction system, expanding workforce housing in urban areas and revitalizing underutilized commercial spaces. The team's approach connects construction innovation with opportunities to put existing spaces to new use.

Runners-up: Eco Eco and Tessera
University of Arizona and Columbia University, respectively
Eco Eco and Tessera each proposed promising kit-of-parts approaches to modular construction. Judges recognized both teams for their market potential and thoughtful consideration of implementation challenges.

ThinkWood Housing Innovation Award
Winner: Bear Necessities
University of California, Berkeley
Bear Necessities proposed a standardized interface for connecting modular components to stick-built construction systems.

The winning team from each category will attend the upcoming 2026 Ivory Prize Summit on Oct. 14, at Arizona State University, where they will pitch their ideas live to an audience of in-person and virtual attendees. After the teams present, the audience will vote to select the Grand Prize winner.

About Ivory Innovations
Ivory Innovations is an operating foundation and academic center based at the University of Utah David Eccles School of Business. Through programs including Hack-A-House, it supports innovative approaches to addressing housing affordability. For more information visit ivoryinnovations.org.

SOURCE Ivory Innovations