

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

I am from Nepal.<p>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.<p>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.
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Atiim
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/](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/](http://www.rebuildhaitihomes.org/) Looks
like they started with fundraising.

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filoeleven
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49oE6nbwz8E)

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

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sandesrb
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.

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chiph
Ikea is entering production with their temporary refugee shelters:

[http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/26/8287509/ikea-refugee-
shelt...](http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/26/8287509/ikea-refugee-shelter-
flatpack-photos-iraq-syria)

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

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eonw
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.

