*Update I think you will enjoy Ian’s input who has experienced his own disaster. Please read below first picture. Also a note from the Colorado Yurt Company.
Peter Sing of Sing Tiny House contacted me with a suggestion of getting the Tiny House Community to generate ideas and designs for housing for those who have lost their homes in the horrible earthquake in Haiti.
We should brainstorm ideas for basic emergency shelter and also more permanent shelter when Haiti starts to rebuild.
I have been trying to think of the best way to do this and think that by using the comments section of this post we can start generating ideas. If you have a design you would like to share email it to me at tinyhouseblog at gmail dot com (be sure and put the email address in the correct format) and I will then put together a post to show your potential designs. I will work on who to contact to submit our ideas too. Any suggestions are welcome. Let’s pitch together and see what we can do to help!
Below are a couple of pictures of some of the standard housing in Haiti.
I’m addressing your call for ideas to help out the Haiti Earthquake victims. Following Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the biggest short term challenge will be getting people clean water or ways to purify water through solar or other means. Then comes waste treatment. Solve these problems first and you’ve got the disease factor at least limited. Food gathering and storage naturally would follow after that.
The next biggest challenge is to get housing for a lot of people quickly. There little time for framing or lengthy custom interior work and there may not be a lot of material available. One approach would be to use 20′ cargo containers with pre-canned interiors. Then set up an assembly line, most likely near a port, employ and feed people and start building these units and distribute them as needed. Set up multiple assembly lines. Use the same toilets, sinks, tables, etc so that you only design once and build many. There’s not too much room for variety here and these could be modified at a later date, but the idea is to get housing quickly.
Alternatively, tent structures like yurts and geodesic domes could go a long way but the availability of these custom units could be problematic.
Being no stranger to natural disasters (Ref: http://www.mercurynewsphoto.com/2008/05/fireaudioss/ , http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/23/summit.wildfire/index.html ), I felt compelled to answer your call for ideas using my own experience in the recovery (aka discovery) process that is still going on physically, mentally, and spiritually.
I gave the container assembly line some more thought on my drive into mid shift this morning. For this to effectively work, the system needs electricity to run the plasma cutters grinders, saws, and other tools. I doubt that electricity would be available from the local utility as it most likely suffered severe damage. Generators will only go as far as the available gas.
It’s certainly a challenge.
Ian McClelland
Also from Colorado Yurt Company
We are looking into the feasibility and logistics of getting yurts, tipis or tents to Haiti right now for temp and more permanent shelter. Would appreciate any feedback anyone has – especially if you’ve been involved in disaster relief or are familiar with the country. Thanks!
Jennie – Colorado Yurt Company
