Comments on: Flat Pack Prefabs Could Provide Relief in Haiti

By: jenniferjuniper97

jenniferjuniper97 — Fri, 20 May 2011 22:17:56 +0000

These shelters could be used to house homeless in the USA as well.

By: ESLICE Prefab Homes: Satisfying Small Space Living | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 20:41:41 +0000

[...] has a simple two-story, two bedroom model as well as plans for a three story home, temporary housing, and multi-family developments. The designers also see the prefab building perfect for hotels, ski [...]

By: Harry Thaler's Stacked Chair Makes for Easy Transportability | Inhabitat - Green Design Will Save the World

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:18:07 +0000

[...] huge fans of products that are able to integrate a flat-pack solution into their design. Not only does flat-packing maximize available space, but it can dramatically cut [...]

By: Heber

Heber — Mon, 03 May 2010 15:53:51 +0000

There is a upgraded version of the Hexayurt that is made of durable panels, ships flat and provides effective temporary and transitional shelter. Since land issues are a big issue, it is important that a structure be portable. It is made by Homergent and is called Flexayurt.

http://www.homergent.com/

By: jenymar

jenymar — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:34:12 +0000

The lessons learned from Aceh’s struggle to extract itself from the tsunami’s aftermath can be readily applied to Haiti.

1) Any materials at all are dearly brought into a disaster area..make the most of what you get in there.

2) “Temporary” housing does not really work. Better to provide a starter home that can be adjusted and expanded.

3) Left to their own devices, locals will cut down trees or utilize local resources that can not necessarily withstand a sudden surge in demand. Who can blame them? They have lives to rebuild. Haiti is widely known for its deforestation issues.

4) Resistant to the idea at the time, Jakarta will now admit that pre-fab techniques could have succeeded in Aceh.

Panelized light frame construction can work if thoughtfully applied.

By: peterinVT

peterinVT — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:25:03 +0000

Here is another design. It can be made with local materials, needs minimal skills and can be upgraded to a permanent building. What I would like to see is prefabbed wall sections that could be stacked and then connected with gusset type connectors.

https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B1L6yHkghAxFMzhlMDQwODktYzE0YS00ZTMwLWFjMmEtNjAxODM4Yzg1ODY5&hl=en

By: The Refinishing Touch

The Refinishing Touch — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:02:01 +0000

With thousands left homeless in Haiti, providing shelter for survivors remains a troubling problem. Duany’s temporary-housing prototype does a great job at effectively utilizing space in a way that is both inexpensive and easy to ship and assemble. In addition, recycling shipping containers is a great benefit to the environment. Hopefully Duany’s solution and others like it will be adopted and implemented quickly to provide rapid assistance to those affected in Haiti.

By: greenhomeproject

greenhomeproject — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 17:31:37 +0000

GlennR, those are mostly bedrooms; Haitians are used to living outdoors and as a temporary measure, something like this is better than what they have now — tents – and they don’t like living in tents. Have you slept in a tent in a hot place? As soon as the sun rises it turns into an oven.

By: GlennR

GlennR — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:08:06 +0000

I can’t see 8 people living in one of those boxes for very long. It is only 8 x 20 , 160 sq ft. A tent would be as useful and simpler to transport & erect, and be much less expensive.

By: metis

metis — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:59:32 +0000

while the hexayurt is remarkably simple, and great for certain sorts of conditions, it’s really not a long term solution. birds will damage the foil as they land on it, and a soccer ball will put a dent in the foam. don’t get me wrong, they’re great, but for temp housing a pop up tent ships in a smaller footprint. for a mid term solution it’s great, but it’s not reusable over the long term as the metal frame of a pop up tent with a replacable recyclable non-woven cover would be.

i want to poke around more on this design, it’s interesting, but it looks heavy and bulky, great for a long term solution, but not a good rapid deployment solution.

By: Chris Watkins

Chris Watkins — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 13:51:37 +0000

I like this – I’m also a fan of Andres Duany and his work on urban design.

I wonder though, for Haiti. Better to have a larger number of even simpler shelters?

Note the simpler design of the Hexayurt. Proven to work well in hot conditions (Burning Man) and being considered by teams in Haiti.

http://hexayurt.com/hexayurt_country/
wiki: http://www.appropedia.org/Hexayurt_project

I think both Duany’s design and the hexayurt have their applications – it would be interesting to see a detailed comparison though.