Joseph Ruiz: How We Are Helping To Make Housing More Affordable

An Interview With Jason Hartman

It’s a misconception to assume everyone understands things that seem obvious to me. Working on a project for a long time can create this illusion that everyone should understand it at first glance, because you do. Especially when approaching a project in a non-traditional way, you’re challenging preconceived ideas and that can be difficult for others to digest. I’ve learned to keep this in mind when pitching new ideas, products, and solutions to different audiences.

In many large cities in the US, there is a crisis caused by a shortage of affordable housing options. This has led to a host of social challenges. In this series called “How We Are Helping To Make Housing More Affordable” we are talking to successful business leaders, real estate leaders, and builders, who share the initiatives they are undertaking to create more affordable housing options in the US.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Joseph Ruiz.

Having studied and worked in Germany, Spain, Mexico, and the United States, Joseph Ruiz has focused his architectural career on creating housing typologies for cities including New York, Los Angeles, Tijuana, and Mexico City. As the Creative Director of T38 Studio in New York for 5 years, he led several projects with a thorough understanding of the efficiency, space, economics, and aesthetics. Throughout his career, he has built a special interest in reevaluating the housing practices in contemporary cities, leading him to create numerous projects for alternative models of urban inhabitation.

Joseph currently serves as Co-Founder and Chief Director of the Built Environment at Madelon Group, a housing company that streamlines the development process for modern, urban living spaces. Through the company’s proprietary technology, its replicable housing models, and manufacturer partnerships, Madelon has created a framework that standardizes the design and development process, preventing many of the bottlenecks that can hinder or delay multifamily development. Its current projects include ground-up modular and prefabricated development and adaptive reuse.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?

I was born in California but raised in Mexico, in Tijuana, just across the border from San Diego. Growing up in such a complex region — where cultural, economic, and social exchanges were of a different nature than the rest of the country — definitely influenced the way I understand the concept of urbanity, how cities are made, and how housing often becomes the most evident reflection of the politics of such territories. Ever since I can remember, I have always liked to imagine and build things from scratch, so architecture was a clear path for me at a very young age. Even though I studied architecture in Los Angeles and San Diego, I never strayed far from my roots in Mexico, which is actually where I met Alfonso Medina, CEO and Co-Founder of Madelon, 9 years ago.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

There are many, but when reflecting on my career’s trajectory, I always remember a specific opportunity that was key to getting me where I am today. The summer after graduating from college I was eager to move to a big city — New York, specifically — and land an architecture job at a well-established, well known architecture firm. In retrospect, it was a pretty lofty goal for someone with a bachelor’s degree from a small school in San Diego, but ultimately, I made it to NYC. ended up interning for T38 Studio, a small architecture firm based in New York with additional offices in Mexico City and Tijuana. . At the end of my internship that summer, T38 Studio’s founder (and my now-business-partner) Alfonso Medina, surprised me with an offer to join him in opening a new branch of the office in New York City. From there, the rest is history.

Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?

After opening a Madelon Group office in New York City, one of the first things we did was enter architecture competitions, and it was those competitions that really gave us the fuel to truly adventure the Big Apple. Another specific turning point for me was winning a multi-generational housing competition in Boston. It was a very interesting exercise because we took it as an opportunity to really experiment with a different kind of housing thanwe were used to working with in Mexico. Rethinking how this type of housing is built, how it can be flexible, and the other programs needed to make a housing project successful remain the basis for our current approach to tackling the housing market crisis at Madelon.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

Throughout my career I have had many mentors — professors that are now great friends of mine and former colleagues in the field of architecture and design. But my business partner and co-founder of Madelon, Alfonso Medina, is a person I have learned a great deal from in particular. From a career standpoint but also beyond the professional field, he has been an amazing mentor as well as a believer in me and what I can achieve. At the end of the day, he is why I am in New York talking about this today.

Do you have a book, podcast, or talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us? Can you explain why it was so resonant with you?

One of the first books I read when I moved to New York was 20 minutes in Manhattan, by architecture critic and urbanist Michael Sorkin, who sadly passed away last year. In a sort of journalistic way he describes his daily routine beginning at his home, and then to his studio in Manhattan. He describes every detail of his daily journey, exposing a hidden side of the city that is so crucial to its existence as a melting pot. It was this first glance of the city that helped me better understand its complexities. It deeply impacted how I envision the role of architecture, in the sense that the act of inhabiting spaces extends far beyond our homes, and that any participation in building the urban landscape creates an incredible impact — and hopefully, a very positive one.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

Not too long ago, I was in the audience of a conversation with Chilean artist Cecilia Vicuña. She started talking about the concept of being present, which is a word that derives from Latin and translates to being in front of being, meaning, being able to look at yourself, the decisions, the actions you take, from the outside. In life, I think it’s essential to question all of these aspects, and be critical of the actions requisite to existing and what you decide to bring to the world.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about the shortage of affordable housing. Lack of affordable housing has been a problem for a long time in the United States. But it seems that it has gotten a lot worse over the past five years, particularly in the large cities. I know this is a huge topic, but for the benefit of our readers can you briefly explain to our readers what brought us to this place? Where did this crisis come from?

The rapid growth of world wide population and how, in recent decades it has increasingly concentrated in cities, has created an urgency to create more housing that is simply not being met by these cities. There are many reasons for that, but our vision is to tackle the issue from a development approach. We understand developers face enormous barriers to entry and are actually trying to provide solutions. A culmination of the archaic nature of the development profession, an increasing globalized vision of supply chains, and a complete disconnect between the various parties involved in the delivery of housing for cities — developers, architects, lenders, law makers, and local communities — has led to a severe shortage of dignified, affordable housing options.

Can you describe to our readers how your work is making an impact to address this crisis? Can you share some of the initiatives you are leading to help correct this issue?

The Madelon team has a lot of experience developing housing, from single family to larger multifamily buildings. We also designed, built and co-developed the first ground up shared housing project in Latin America, Casa Uno, which was also one of the first shared housing projects in the world. This category of housing has proven to be very successful at providing an alternative,more affordable way for young professionals to stay in a city where rents keep rising exponentially. Through the years, I have come to understand how people like to live, and what makes housing developments successful. Now, I am taking all of these lessons learned and applying them to our work at Madelon. We are using technology to create a platform that streamlines the development processes to allow for faster development practices by tearing down many of the barriers to entry for small and medium size developers. Eventually, and this is a long term goal for us, we’d like to extend this even further, to a point where communities, institutions, and individuals can effectively develop their own housing.

Can you share something about your work that makes you most proud? Is there a particular story or incident that you found most uplifting?

I’ve been designing housing for over 10 years, and I have always operated under the principle that it’s important to imagine space, buildings, and the city beyond the set of rules and regulations that govern them. With my team at Madelon, we have gone through numerous iterations of how housing can be configured — from its interior to the building as a whole — and have come up with principles that not only optimize space but also create more affordable products. I’m incredibly proud of my ability, and Madelon’s ongoing efforts, to imagine and produce products that actually help deliver better housing at a more accessible cost, and at the speed we need to exist within the legal boundaries of cities. The success stories, like that of Casa Uno, are especially satisfying because we apply a lot of trial and error, and go through rigorous experimentation at Madelon., Given that, every time a new product is approved to be built by the city in which it is located, it’s very gratifying.

In your opinion, what should other home builders do to further address these problems?

It’s important for others to realize there’s plenty of space in the housing industry for all. There’s a significant amount of capital just waiting to be deployed on housing projects but because of the way development works right now, it is quite inaccessible. As is done in other industries, if everyone adopted the mindset that technology can better facilitate how we operate, we could exponentially increase the much needed housing stock in cities and ultimately make strides toward permanently resolving the housing crisis.

Can you share three things that the community and society can do to help you address the root of this crisis? Can you give some examples?

There are two that immediately come to mind. First, it’s important to understand that human beings thrive by building together. Every action is transcendental to the communities we are part of — truly understanding this is essential when operating in this field.

Second, we should look at design as a tool for inclusion and not exclusion and that it’s true value is in its capacity to find solutions for problems at scale, rather than just for one individual or select group.

If you had the power to influence legislation, are there laws which you would like to see introduced that might help you in your work?

Cities need to understand the state of emergency we are entering as a result of the housing crisis. As I mentioned before, there’s both an incredible amount of capital, and a lot of people and groups who want to create housing, but there’s just no clear path to do it. On a legislative level, I would want to alter the system and create accessibility through a much more open-source platform where we can bring technology, knowledge, capital, and great ideas together to deliver great housing at the speed it needs to be delivered.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started leading my company” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

1. It’s a misconception to assume everyone understands things that seem obvious to me. Working on a project for a long time can create this illusion that everyone should understand it at first glance, because you do. Especially when approaching a project in a non-traditional way, you’re challenging preconceived ideas and that can be difficult for others to digest. I’ve learned to keep this in mind when pitching new ideas, products, and solutions to different audiences.
2. At Madelon, we are always trying to speak and appeal to different audiences, and there are different angles that need to be considered when trying to achieve this goal. For example, talking about design on its own does not appeal to certain audiences, just as talking about numbers and profitability doesn appeal as much to others. Finding those different angles is important. We apply this thinking to every deck, email, or conversation we have.
3. Standardization in construction has a long way to go. Modular thinking and making has not penetrated the built environment in an impactful way, and there are many specificities to it that are not evident at all. For example, in traditional construction you usually try to mirror bathrooms and kitchens to have shared walls where all the mechanical systems are introduced. In prefab, mirroring a unit means designing a completely different module.
4. Talent can be obsolete when there is no dedication and commitment to a common goal. When hiring people and choosing who to collaborate with externally, we have learned that willingness to learn — to really put the time and effort into what we do at Madelon — is far more important than what is typically considered ‘talent.’ It is unequivocally more valuable to surround yourself with people that really understand your vision and are interested in adopting the methods and resources needed to achieve that vision, as opposed to working with people that have the ‘talent’ but lack a synonymous vision.
5. It is okay to put things out in the world before they are completely finished. It is incredibly valuable to have feedback from people that could potentially be benefited by the productization processes we go though. Once you think you know something is when you should really start questioning yourself and putting your work in front of others. All the processes we go through require constant and infinite iteration, and it’s beneficial to work under the mindset that what you put out into the world will eventually transform into the ‘final product.’

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would like to inspire the “good modular architecture movement of the 21st century.” Modular construction and design has been tried before, it’s not a new concept. But even though there have been several attempts (at least on paper) to use it as a way to deliver housing to the masses, there has always been something preventing it from transcending as a practice in the general built environment. I think modularity is the only way to succeed in this quest and is truly the future. We either jump on that boat and have the chance to bring our input into the future fabric of cities, or we continue on with only practicing authored design that impacts a very small sector of society. Ultimately, modular buildings exist only as that — as buildings. They are part of the urban landscape, they are inhabited, they take up space, and they are much needed. We should look at them as we look at any other building, and be conscious of the fact that, after witnessing the efficiencies provided by modular construction, these projects also need to be beautiful, dignified, and contribute to the larger urban environment in a positive way.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :-)

Many come to mind, most of them in creative fields. The first ones are Anne Lacaton and Jean-Philippe Vassal, from Lacaton & Vassal Architectes. I’d like to speak with them about the ‘the pleasure of living.’

How can our readers further follow your work online?

We often post content on Medium — madelongroup.medium.com. To find out more about our work at Madelon, visit our website madelongroup.com. I also keep a journal of projects, drawings, photography, and inspirational images on Instagram, @ignacioruiztapia.

This was very meaningful, thank you so much, and we wish you only continued success.