Good Apartments Should Be Built Like Cars, Not Redesigned Every Time
A former SpaceX engineer says pre-designed, pre-approved apartments could cut design time in half.
Modular Building Institute · Harvard MBA Graduate & Former SpaceX Engineer Believes Affordable Housing Lies in the 'Cloud'Curtis Wong, a former SpaceX engineer who founded Cloud Apartments to build factory-made apartments, was explaining his approach of treating apartments as pre-designed products. Wong notes that many people hear standardization as a “dirty word.” As he put it, “[With standardization], we can drive up quality and drive down costs pretty dramatically.”
Wong argues that standardization has a bad reputation it does not deserve. He points to the iPhone and Tesla, products he says built fandom because they redefined their categories and changed what people knew a phone and a car to be. He wants to do the same thing for apartments. He says the idea pairs the innovation he experienced at SpaceX with his background in building and development work to change how new housing is built.
His own version is an apartment that Wong describes as “better in every way” and “soundproof from your neighbors,” with every square inch thoughtfully planned, walls that open to a fully enclosed balcony, “built-in sound systems, and a focus on sustainability.”
So Wong treats the apartment as a pre-designed product that can be reviewed and cleared statewide in California in advance. Only the parts tied to the land still need site-specific design, which he says can cut design time in half from about 12 months. As Wong puts it, “This shrinks the entire process down without any risks while reducing costs.” He argues “that whole process means you can scale how you build housing.”
Wong closes the loop with cars. As he puts it, “You don’t redesign a car every time you buy a new car. It’s a pre-designed product. It’s approved.”
Questions people ask
Why would building the same apartment design lower costs?
Building the same design repeatedly lets a company buy materials in bulk, train crews on one process, and fix flaws once instead of on every job. Factories also allow tighter tolerances and testing than outdoor job sites, which can reduce rework and warranty costs.
Does standardization mean every building looks exactly the same?
No. In factory-built housing, the interior unit can stay identical while the building around it changes. Developers commonly vary the podium, roof, exterior materials, and how units are arranged to fit the lot, which preserves the factory savings.
What does it mean for an apartment to be pre-approved by the state?
Some states allow factory-built housing components to be reviewed once at the state level for building code compliance. Local review then focuses mainly on foundations, zoning, utilities, and site conditions, which can shorten approvals but does not remove them.