Housing
Homes that gateway communities can actually build, staff, and keep.
A Habitable · 500 Acres Challenge
Fifteen builders.
Real homes. Real ownership. Hack Housing is a build competition in the towns at the gates of our national parks, where the people who run them often cannot afford to live near them.
The Challenge
A housing shortage is really a workforce shortage.
Gateway towns cannot house the people that parks and the travel economy depend on. Hack Housing takes that on directly: Fellows learn to design, fabricate, and build homes while earning their way toward owning what they build.
Skills gap
A generation learning CNC, robotics, open design, and hands-on construction.
Social repair
Ownership as the outcome, not a handout. Fellows build equity and local belonging.
How It Works
The guild, rebuilt for a generation with robots.
Fellows climb a builder’s ladder: the same apprentice-to-master path the trades have used for centuries, now powered by digital fabrication and judged on real completed work.
Apprentice
Learn tools, safety, craft, and the fundamentals of open building systems.
Journeyman
Design and complete a home judged on practical capability and honest appraisal.
Master Builder
Create the best repeatable build process for other Fellows and other towns.
Maker Lab Network
Maker labs are the training ground.
The maker lab map connects Fellows to nearby shops, schools, university labs, fabrication tools, and mentors. Davis, Brooklyn, Boise, Atlanta, Dallas, and new fellowship areas can be added one by one as the program grows.
Recruitment & Build Timeline
Backward-mapped to June 1, 2027.
The plan moves from outreach to applications, selection, team formation, permitting, fabrication, site work, and final turnover before the start of rental season.
Jul–Oct 2026Faculty, labs, university, and makerspace outreach.
Sep–Nov 2026Applications open in September and close in mid-November.
Nov–Dec 2026Interviews, selection, sponsor matching, and project readiness.
Before spring termTeams form around design, fabrication, permitting, hospitality, and site work.
Dec–May 2027Discovery, design, factory work, site work, finishes, documentation, and reporting.
June 1, 2027Rental season starts with the target of 20 HCUs finished.
The HCU Ladder
Ownership should begin with participation, not debt.
Each rung builds value, capability, and access to homeownership. The work starts simple and becomes more permanent as Fellows prove the system.
HCU-1
Glamping TentHospitality and income first.
HCU-2
Cabin ShellCost-primary, with an income floor.
HCU-3
Off-grid Utility CoreServiced, rentable, and more resilient.
HCU-4
Financeable Housing AssetA stronger bridge to residential value.
HCU-5
Permanent Home OwnershipFully in the real-property regime.
Meet the Fellows
Fifteen people building the future of housing.
Each Fellow brings a different discipline to the same build: design, fabrication, engineering, permitting, hospitality, documentation, and field leadership.
AM
Anant Madhok
Maker’s Lab Map fellow at UC Davis, building the lab finder that connects fellows to nearby fabrication resources.
JW
James Washington
Artist in Residence from Atlanta with a background in architecture and studio arts.
IV
Isaiah Valencia
Build Track fellow focused on hands-on construction learning and project development.
SR
Shaunak Roy
Robot and Drone Track fellow studying robotics at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor.
SS
Siddharth Senthilnathan
Robot and Drone Track fellow focused on drone operations, monitoring, and autonomous systems.
+5
Full cohort
Additional fellows include Matalyn Perdew, Mac Holmes, August Easley, Adriano Muro, and Srinketh Shankar.
Sponsor · Get Involved
Put your name on the homes these Fellows build.
Gifts are made to the 500 Acres Foundation, a 501(c)(3), and support the Fellows, the labs, and the builds. Sponsors are recognized across the competition and on the finished homes.
Build Underwriter
Funds a full Fellow build. One gift, one home.
Master Builder Circle
Underwrites half a build and the mastery training behind it.
Journeyman Circle
Powers a Fellow through the working-builder stage.
Apprentice Circle
Equips a first-time builder’s start.
Guild Friend
Keeps the labs open and the tools sharp.
Supporter
Every gift moves a Fellow one rung up.
Building-Supply Partners
Materials count.
Lumber, fasteners, roofing, windows, tools, and in-kind contributions put a company directly into the homes these Fellows build. Tell us what you can contribute and we will match it to a lab or build site.
Or give by wire, DAF, stock, or in-kind by emailing welcome@500acres.org.