Architect's prefabs for homeless could shelter displaced Haitians

Can a stripped-down, bunkhouse-like structure made of near-indestructible, space-age materials provide a solution to Haiti's post-quake housing crisis?

Famed Miami architect and planner Andrés Duany certainly thinks so.

Duany, who helped develop the prefabricated "Katrina Cottage" as an alternative to the widely criticized FEMA trailers, has devised a light, expandable "core house" for Haiti's homeless that can stand up to earthquakes and hurricanes. It even meets Miami-Dade's tough building code, he says.

The house, which would sleep eight in a bunkhouse arrangement, could be easily shipped to Haiti in a package less than two feet thick, and assembled by local laborers in a matter of hours, Duany said.

The material is a composite that Duany calls "totally miraculous" — thin but strong, durable, fireproof, waterproof and mold-proof. The idea grew out of a project Duany was already working on in Miami's Little Haiti to erect eight larger prefab houses using the same technique and material.

"You've never seen a house like this," Duany said. "When you build something out of this material, it's like being inside a fiberglass boat. It's absolutely the best."

A prototype of the Haiti house is now being readied at a Miami Gardens factory. On Saturday, Duany will fly to Haiti with University of Miami physician Barth Green's medical team to examine potential locations for temporary camps identified by the Haitian government.

Among the questions Duany said he needs to answer: What kind of sanitation and sewage arrangements will be available, and how level and firm is the ground — details that would determine what kind of foundation the houses might rest on.

"Are you talking about outhouses or something else?" Duany said. "And I need to observe the ground — how flat, how sloped — and take core samples of soil."

Duany hopes governmental, volunteer or corporate groups will sponsor and pay to manufacture, ship and install the houses, which he said would be vastly superior to the tent cities now being contemplated.

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