Ask HN: Building cheap, affordable houses in earthquake-hit Nepal?

11 points by meadhikari 11 years ago | 6 comments

I am from Nepal.

Thousands of houses has been completely destroyed here. Any expert here who can suggest some technology which could help people to build houses fast and cheap.

I really need these info to help people rebuild there houses. We have many youths who are ready to provide help but we are not familiar with the process.

Atiim 11 years ago |

So I did a bit of research. Here are my two approaches to hacking complex problems:

  1. Find who is doing it already.
  2. See how this problem was tackled by someone who had it worse.

For #1: See http://www.naturalbuildingblog.com/ They aim for simple to build earth-based houses for $10/sq ft. A good next step likely is to reach Dr. Owen Geiger.

For #2: See http://www.rebuildhaitihomes.org/ Looks like they started with fundraising.

filoeleven 11 years ago |

You may want to try to contact Mike Reynolds, who is best known for building self-sufficient houses called Earthships by using refuse (rammed-earth tires, plastic bottles, etc.) as a structural component.

He took a team to places hard-hit by the 2004 tsunami and worked with the local people to design and build houses out of whatever was available[0]. He appears to be good at figuring out how to build homes that are suited to their environment given the materials at hand. For example, he saw that lack of clean drinking water was as big a problem for the islands hit by the tsunami as the lack of real housing, so he incorporated rainwater catchments and cisterns into the structure of the single-family structure he designed with the islanders.

I think his talents would be well-suited to a disaster situation where there is a need for fast, cheap housing, and it seems he has the heart for it as well. I bet we could crowd-fund his travel costs if he's willing to go and there's a need for that. There is a contact page with a phone number on the earthship website[1].

[0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49oE6nbwz8E

[1]http://earthship.com/home/contact-us

sandesrb 11 years ago |

The question is quite unclear here. Are we talking about temporary houses to live or the kind of houses which are supposed to be sustainable and residential. Better house construction techniques are sure to help and earthquake resistant building techniques are known and applied during current construction of houses in Nepal, I suppose. I am not the authority here though. Just clearing the confusion in the question.

P.S. I am also from Nepal.

chiph 11 years ago |

Ikea is entering production with their temporary refugee shelters:

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/26/8287509/ikea-refugee-shelt...

Atiim 11 years ago |

The big question is: which materials you have available for construction now - concrete, wood, glass?

eonw 11 years ago |

knowing what materials you have available would make it easier to help come up with a design.

shipping containers come to mind as something easy to acquire and redesign the interior of quickly and easily.

if wood is in abundance, there are many cheap and fast designs for small shelters/houses available online that have been made for ease of construction. Wood is probably easier/faster to build to earthquake resistant building code, then other materials.

small and efficient home design is often studied in architecture schools, there is an abundance of designs available online. if you found one suitable, ask the creator if they would be willing to provide your cause with a free set of blue prints or more detailed design materials.