Very early on in the design process we recognized the need for cultural adaptations.  The first and most obvious element to include was the Genkan entryway or wind room, which keeps the interior of the house warmer and provides a space for inhabitants and guests to change from their outside shoes into slippers.  After the first round of proposals were submitted and the government saw our recognition and inclusion of this crucial element of Japanese architecture, a Genkan entryway immediately became a requirement for all other transitional shelter designs.  World Shelters is extremely proud to have inspired this change.

We have done our best to address as many other cultural needs as possible.  In this area it has been wonderful and incredibly helpful to be working closely with Kaigai Aviotech, as they have offered suggestions that we would not otherwise  have known about.  In Japan, especially in the north, it is important to have a south-facing wall with a window so as to let in the most light and warmth.  World Shelters has done its best to accommodate this request.  Other elements we have added include Oshiire, which are storage closets specifically designed to hold futons, and large horizontally-opening windows to allow for easy airing out of the futons.  Our engineering calls for bathrooms with a shower, sink, and Japanese-style bathtub, although those are not included in the unit price.  Bathing carries great importance in Japanese culture and we wanted to be able to provide the opportunity to those for whom it is most meaningful.

Lastly, the engineering of the 2DK TShel2 allows for a small space that can easily be transformed into a Tokonoma, or spiritual alcove.  We at World Shelters believe that for transitional shelter to be the most successful, inhabitants should feel like their needs can be easily met.  By providing a traditional space for expressions of spirituality, we are able to help support the needs of the mind and the soul in addition to the basic, pressing demands of the body.

World Shelters can’t wait to get the 2DK TShel2 into the hands of the Japanese people for whom it was designed, and who are so in need of new homes.  Although our partners at Kaigai Aviotech have been splendid, we are still in need of support from those of you here in America and around the world who would like to help Japan.  Please consider clicking any of the yellow “Donate” buttons on our site - your donations will help us get these remarkable, thoughtfully engineered and designed shelters to Japan as quickly as possible.  Thank you for your support!

Our current system is rife with untapped potential.  World Shelters believes that by implementing a locally-coordinated program that combines Transitional Shelter, loan capital, and investments we can more effectively jump-start community rebuilding.  World Shelters has the ability to either support distinct elements of such a program or to coordinate an overall program.  Here are some of those distinct elements as we’ve envisioned them.

While the sheeting provided as the ubiquitous relief material does provide a possible partial shield for families from the elements, the lack of similarly-provided frames is a major shortfall in meeting shelter needs.  This has led to other problems, such as the massive cutting of already limited hardwood branches and trees in Haiti to support sheeting and to create shelter.  The JAS Shelter Kit from World Shelters offers an ultra-low cost framing system that can easily turn simple sheeting into Transitional Shelter.

Land availability for shelters away from destroyed neighborhoods is also a significant constraint.  Land acquisition, land tenure resolution, community planning, and additional necessary facilities and services are all prerequisites to provision of framed shelter that will be in place for any extended period.  World Shelters envisions “Neighborhood Clusters” as manageable-scale scenarios that create teams of families to more effectively rebuild homes, enterprise, and community.  These massively-replicable, neighborhood-scale projects go a long way towards addressing the land availability issue.  In Haiti in particular, vast amounts of rubble has limited the amount of land available to build on.  World Shelters can provide gabions, wire cages in which rubble can be cleared away and stored, and then repurposed to build walls or help with erosion control.  In addition to the basic provision of gabions, we can help provide in-country program coordination, including gabion production start-up in Haiti.

World Shelters has devised a method to jump-start the cycle of self-sufficiency.  By leasing land from private Haitian land owners we can provide families with safe, sturdy, and easily-built Transitional Shelter that includes water collection, composting toilets, and solar panels for electricity for only $4 a day.  Rent can be paid daily on simply-acquired cell phones, with payment or non-payment able to be monitored remotely from the United States.  While for some the concept of daily payment may be hard to wrap their heads around after being accustomed to an entirely different way of doing things,  this method can not only encourage continuous productivity but can also infuse the community with some much-needed routine stability – not to mention providing, in addition to shelter, basic necessities like electricity, potable water, and sanitary waste disposal that many people might otherwise find difficult to come by or completely un-affordable.

Even the basic provision of quality Transitional Shelter can help a family along the path towards becoming highly productive members of the community.  When we start treating shelter as an asset to be managed instead of as a cost to be burdened with, than the recipients of Transitional Shelters are being given the means to work towards self-sufficiency.  Assets increase a family’s balance sheet and provide collateral in order to help finance loans.  Family members who have their needs provided for them by Transitional Shelter are more available for work, both in and out of the home, and thus are able to generate more money.  Children who are raised in Transitional Shelter have more opportunities to study outside the home, be it at school or at a trade, helping to create a new generation of intelligent, productive workers.  These workers, their basic needs supported by Transitional Shelter, collectively deliver both cash and productivity into the community economy.

Once a family has their Transitional Shelter as collateral and their increased productivity earnings, they have the ability to qualify for and to repay loans.  It is as important, for many reasons, to bring capital into a recovering community as it is to bring in required shelter materials.  Loans can be used for rebuilding on the family’s site; to extend and integrate the Transitional Shelter into a more preferred, permanent design using local materials.  Loans are particularly needed for enterprise creation and expansion in order to build and support the local business community.  World Shelters has also envisioned Neighborhood Clusters as loan collectives, where all participants are collectively responsible for repayment of the loan.  This encourages individual repayment by providing not only a strong support system but also helpful pressure to repay for the good of everyone involved.

One of the keys to rebuilding a community is the ability for individuals and families to generate a livelihood.  Many self-generated enterprises will arise from the initiative of sheltered families, but there is more we can do to support additional start-ups.  Any product or service that is needed in significant volume can become a channel for new enterprise creation.  Necessary elements for such creation include capital, local business and government integration, a good site, and project management - all of these elements are achievable.  Regenerative enterprises can expand their products and/or services beyond their original locality, thereby increasing revenue in the community as a whole.  World Shelters has a number of ideas for start-up enterprises, such as creating a company that uses gabions to clear rubble, create walls, and prevent erosion, but in many cases what is needed will be site-specific.  What is important is that with the help of Transitional Shelter, local individuals and families are given the chance to work and provide for themselves, increasing not only their personal quality of life, but the quality of the community over-all.

The provision of inclusive Transitional Shelter is the first step towards getting people back on their feet, able to work as productive members of society, whatever form that may take.  When we take the struggle out of having potable water, finding a sanitary place for waste, or living in a structure that provides reliable safety and privacy, people can put their energy into work and productivity.  If communities are fighting every day for those basic needs, the road towards rebuilding and betterment is going to be a long and hard one.  World Shelters wants those affected by disasters to be able to break the chain of reliance on relief organizations and, through the benefits of Transitional Shelter, move towards a lifestyle where they can rely solely on themselves.

U-Dome at the Triennale

This exhibition was a great opportunity for World Shelters to display its U-Dome along with many other new designs for transitional shelter.  The feedback we got back was extremely positive and our design was well-received by the many international design and shelter experts on hand.  The DesignBoom articles do a great job of outlining the exhibit as well as our specific participation in it.  You can check out info and photos about the U-Dome here, and more general information about “Una Casa Per Tutti” here.

For many families in Haiti the home is a woman’s workplace. In order to provide for and support her family, many women must endure harrowing and dangerous situations on a daily basis. The IDP camps harbor a constant threat of violent gangs and numerous instances of sexual violence have been reported, with undoubtedly many more going unreported or unnoticed. Even going to wait in line for clean water carries a risk to personal safety. If a woman can provide for herself and/or her family with electricity and a water tank in the home, not to mention the health and sanitation improvements a composting toilet will bring, there is a much greater opportunity for her to keep herself and, by extension, her children out of harm’s way. It also allows for the possibility of women working outside the home if they are not constantly tied down doing chores, allowing them to be productive members of the larger community as well.

If World Shelters was to build a 10-house settlement on this lot, it would create a true community where neighbors could support each other and allow for greater productivity among the settlement as a whole. Residents living in a more permanent neighborhood have greater opportunity to form personal connections and relationships with each other, which it is fair to say increases happiness in the long-term as well as providing possible reciprocal support such as babysitting or communal meals. Each family would need to be at least minimally productive in order to pay the small monthly rental fee, which encourages growth and development not only within the community but in Haiti as a whole, where productive workers are what is going to get the country heading in the right direction. Our plan also looks towards the future, with the Haitian land-owner taking ownership of the 10 units after 36 months so that the entire settlement becomes self-supporting. World Shelters Executive Director Bruce LeBel says, “If the shelter and land (and accessories like water harvesting) can be provided at a monthly price that productive workers can afford to pay, then there’s no need for government grants or agency donations or other largesse.” Our goal is to create an environment where inhabitants can provide for themselves in an economically sustainable manner by nurturing and encouraging productivity. World Shelters is currently in discussions with the Haitian land-owner and developing financing, but is hopeful that this great opportunity will be able to come to fruition.

TranShel

These two shelters are both highly adaptable to local needs and situations, with the two-story TShel2 specifically addressing the issue of land shortage in Haiti.  LeBel also recognizes the need to partner with local governments, businesses, manufacturers, relief agencies, land owners, and workers in order to not only provide the most effective service but also to increase self-reliance and productivity among citizens.  He says, “Local labor and local materials are integral in the implementation of TranShel [and TShel2] shelters. By partnering with established local agencies and local governments we can accurately determine appropriate project processes…The goal is to shift the long term management of these shelter assembly and construction projects to local organizations and individuals, and to thereby create more effective projects with a maximum level of community ownership. This process illustrates how the TranShel [and TShel2] is more than a shelter but a source of job creation and economic growth towards community recovery.”

TShel2

World Shelters is eager to begin deploying the TranShel and TShel2 on a wider basis in Haiti, but hopes to partner with other relief agencies or NGOs in order to achieve maximum efficiency and provide alternatives to plastic sheeting and dangerous, poorly constructed IDP camps to as many people as is possible.  Mercy Corps would be an ideal partner and we look forward to hearing their thoughts on our proposal.

]]> http://worldshelters.org/blog/world-shelters-submits-proposal-to-partner-with-mercy-corps-in-haiti/feed http://worldshelters.org/blog/bringing-the-tshel2-to-haiti http://worldshelters.org/blog/bringing-the-tshel2-to-haiti#comments Wed, 02 Mar 2011 18:54:39 +0000 Lauren http://worldshelters.org/?p=1351

The relief situation in Haiti has raised some unique problems, but those problems have led us to develop new, innovative designs. Because of the very limited space available in certain areas in Haiti, World Shelters was asked by USAID to develop a two-story transitional shelter in order to provide adequate housing and make the most of the very small plots of land that many Haitians are living on. In close collaboration with Uber Shelter, we have developed a two-story transitional shelter that provides solutions to other existing shelter problems as well. Called the TShel2, this unique structure actually has three levels and creates 18 m2 of interior sleeping and living space plus 6 m2 of covered outdoor space, all on a 12 m2 footprint. By designing the shelter to be supported by engineered footings instead of a basic cement foundation, the TShel2 is securely raised above the ground to facilitate drainage, with telescoping legs that can elevate the structure even higher in times of severe flooding.

Tarp shelters in Delmas 33, an IDP camp

Flooding is extremely common in Haiti, and the ground drainage that the TShel2 allows, while helpful to individuals on a small scale, could have an even greater positive impact if our shelter becomes widely available. Currently when it rains in the camps, where none of the shelters are above the ground, mud and water flow under the walls, creating a living environment that is not only unpleasant but also quite possibly dangerous for the inhabitants’ health. Addressing even just this basic issue will increase safety and quality of life.

Fresh concrete to support the raised load-rated anchors

But the TShel2 has other features that will provide a better living situation in numerous ways. The shelter has a 100mph rated wind load, an important feature that will become crucial once hurricane season rolls around again. Incremental structural designs have been defined to achieve the design goal of 120mph ultimate wind load and 100mph rated wind load with a safety factor of 1.5. With most shelters in the current camps being constructed of scrap wood, metal, and plastic tarps, hurricane winds could be devastatingly destructive.

Building the TShel2 for Genesis

A vented roof and opening windows with mosquito screens provide enough ventilation that the temperatures inside the shelter stay reasonable, even in a tropical climate. The design of the second floor creates a shaded outdoor porch area, perfect for cooking. Every inch of the 12 square meter footprint is designed to be used effectively, however, the TShel2 is modular and can be easily adapted to add on more rooms and space to the existing structure.

Genesis' TShel2, completed!

TShel2 stands out amongst other shelters

With further support and the possible addition of solar panels, composting toilets, and water collection tanks, the TShel2 can provide a living space that is more than just shelter. With the safety, security, and peace of mind created by the TShel2, inhabitants can lead lives that allow them to be not simply functioning day-to-day, but also to work and grow as productive members of their community. On a large scale, such supportive productivity is going to be the key to helping Haitians rebuild their country and their lives.

Genesis and his wife Linda in their new home!

All photos courtesy of the Uber Shelter blog. Please click the link to find out more!

All relief agencies working in support of Haiti have experienced daunting logistical challenges, including the very complex issue of land clearance. World Shelters’ shipment for Doctors without Borders is currently in Haiti awaiting site clearance. The shipment for ACTS World Relief is currently in Florida awaiting transport to Haiti. For more information on the difficulties of land clearance and logistics within Haiti, please see this Associated Press article.

Due to these issues, the World Shelters team has not yet departed for Haiti. As soon as our partner agencies have resolved the issues of land clearance for these installations, we will send our team to erect these structures. The rainy season typically begins on April 1 and we want to provide these facilities as soon as possible. We are working closely with our partnering agencies in order to obtain the necessary land clearance and complete these projects for medical installations as expeditiously as possible.

World Shelters has submitted proposals for over 20,000 family shelters in response to multiple agencies’ requests for proposals. Currently little to no land in Haiti is available for siting any of these projects.

As new developments arise, we will be updating the World Shelters website with this new information.

As of April 1st, donation options include:

World Shelters’ Donation Code is 88-80042. Thank you for your generous support!