Slideshow: Instant Housing and Designing for Disaster

[Ian David]

Slideshow: Instant Housing and Designing for Disaster

By Jenna Wortham Write to the Author
See related story:
10.22.07 | 12:00 AM

When disaster strikes, the need for short-term housing is immediate and urgent. The Department of Homeland Security estimates that more than 800,000 people were displaced after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and UNICEF reported 130,000 residents were made homeless by the 2006 earthquake in central Java, Indonesia.

State-provided housing is expensive, too temporary and can be potentially harmful to residents. A growing number of architects and designers is exploring humanitarian design for people displaced by a natural disaster or other emergency. This gallery shows some of the most promising quick-fix shelters, from inflatable concrete tents to houses made from recycled wood pallets.

Left: Shipping containers, found in abundance all over the world, form the basis for the Future Shack, a self-contained, modular refugee-housing unit. It can be mass-produced with a minimum of materials and is easily stockpiled, making it a versatile emergency-housing unit.

Disaster sites, often covered with debris, require laborious grunt work before shelters can be erected. The Future Shack comes equipped with telescoping legs for support and can be fully assembled as needed within 24 hours on almost any terrain -- with no excavation, which means construction does not add to soil erosion problems or create additional damage to the area. When the structures are no longer required, they can be quickly packed back inside themselves and relocated around the world.

Designed by Australian architect Sean Godsell, the Future Shack has a parasol-style roof made from recycled plastic to collect water for storage, and includes solar cells to generate electricity.

Photo: Courtesy of Sean Godsell Architects




More:
http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/multimedia/2007/10/gallery_instant_housing

[gateley]

1. This is very interesting - and thought provoking. Thanks for posting it! nt

[RufusEarl]

2. Check this out, it's a great idea!

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/06/innovative_arch.php

Peace!

[Ian David]

3. Sci-fi writer William Gibson wrote about container-based architecture, too.

He envisioned colonies of people living in containers tied to the bottoms of bridges, for example.

[RufusEarl]

4. I watched a documentary awhile back,

and this guy was building two and three story housing using containers. They not only looks good but were very economical, they were designed to stack this made it very easy to build. I wish i could remember what channel i watched this on, but i thought to myself i could live in something like that.

Peace!