Comments on: IKEA Refugee Housing

By: Douglas Day

Douglas Day — Wed, 24 Jan 2007 22:38:27 +0000

Lets hear it for sustainable conscientious design for those in need. Good work guys.

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 21:38:39 +0000

Well, there are some fundamental flaws with your house; but you’re definitely thinking in the same direction as I am. (the right one?)

$40,000 for a lot of land is 10 years of my life spent working instead of enjoying.

Some problems with this include:

– inadequate protection from rain – need an MD3 toilet in the US (poo tank.. eww) – sure you have water, but food? – I assume there’s no power on this raft? How do you heat the water for a shower? How do you pump the water?

My conceived solution looks alot like a miniature of Sydney Australia’s famous opera house. Lots of dacron, clear pop bottles for various things, high quality plywood floors and epoxy.

Still don’t have a kitchen, or washer/dryer; but I ought to make enough power for lights, laptop, and water pumping and heating.

I’ve been reading about the possibility of putting pop bottles semi-submerged with plants in them. But in all honesty I don’t expect to grow my own food.

Total cost for materials at Home Depot: $9,180.
Total square footage: 728sf.

Sincerely,
Dan

By: Vestal Design Blog » Blog Archive » Renzo Piano IBM Traveling Pavilion

Vestal Design Blog » Blog Archive » Renzo Piano IBM Traveling Pavilion — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 07:22:13 +0000

[...] Related Posts: Shipping Container Refugee Housing, Curtain House, Vasariano Corridoio [...]

By: Jessica

Jessica — Thu, 21 Jul 2005 18:17:00 +0000

also, totally off-topic: your renderings totally remind me of this fun little game called Fly Guy.

By: Jeff Warren

Jeff Warren — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 16:30:00 +0000

Agreed, the bulk is an issue for sustainability – but we decided a few things in the design process. First, durability allows these to transition to longer-term housing. 2nd, having houseboats allows them to be set up close to a city center – most metropolitan areas are based around a river or coastline. 3rd of all, the fully wooden interior is a building technology everyone can relate to (technologically) and modify, meaning that these can transition in their usage easily.

I’ve also heard that many shipping containers are apparently being discarded for drug-trafficking related issues (drugs can be hidden in their bolt-holes or something) so there may be a large supply of containers available.

We blogged the concrete canvas building as well, which is a terrific and delightful idea.

By: Tim

Tim — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 11:29:00 +0000

Interesting, both the design and concept. But I also wonder about the cost both of making these, the enviromental friendlyness of these, and the efficiency of this vs. the concrete canvas refugee buildings. (You can find more information here: http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002345.html )

Also potential building materials would be interesting to know about.

By: mike lin

mike lin — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 08:37:00 +0000

There's also a lot of interesting shipping container related work, where the structure itself is the container. article If I remember correctly, my friend Jesse Karp was quite involved with a firm called LOT-EK in NYC that specialized in shipping container structures. ...also, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum featured a similar project by Australian architect Sean Godsell.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sun, 10 Jul 2005 08:31:00 +0000

>>“We based the visual style of our designs on IKEA instruction booklets.”

All i’m thinking is those “alternative designs” in the back of those lego instruction manuals...