Knowledge
High school students design a super economical shelter for the homeless costing less than USD 3000
2 high school students from California designed a shelter for the homeless for less than $1000. Now as seniors they have built the first prototype. Its biggest advantage is that it can be assembled anywhere without any additional tools.
The world is today grappling with real estate problems on multiple fronts. Firstly, it is the rich and super rich who are cornering huge masses of real estate. Secondly, governments across the world are struggling to find the answer to low cost economical housing problems faced by millions of its underprivileged population.
While numerous solutions surface from time-to-time like the ones presented by Ikea or Amazon, it is the truly refreshing take of young minds that is stealing the world’s attention at the moment. Norris Palmer and Austin Ortega created a low-cost micro-home that could be used to shelter the homeless as a final project for one of their classes in high school in Stockton, California.
However, unlike most school projects, it didn’t stop at just turning in the assignments. The duo, who are now seniors at the Engineering and Construction Academy at Lincoln High School, continued pursuing their concept and recently completed the first prototype of what they term as the Habitable Urban Tent (HUT).
Measuring 8 feet in all directions, the HUT is similar to the refugee shelter presented by IKEA last year in terms of economical manufacturing cost, ease of shipping and the convenience of assembling without any additional tools. The recently unveiled prototype features metal panels and a wooden frame. However, their plans are to construct the future units using high-density polyethylene plastic.
"The pyramid shape cuts the surface area down by only having fewer faces, which means less use of material," Palmer and Ortega said. "Also the primary means of use for the HUT is sleeping and privacy – so we narrowed down the interactions to walking to the cot in the rear and standing up."
Each HUT unit also includes a bed and a carpet, as well as a built-in sliding window for ventilation. The unit also features insulation between the structure's wooden frame and outer metal panels.
Though the HUT is pretty Spartan in its offerings and lacks the comforts of a room in a house or shelter, the structure's ease of assembly is easily its biggest advantage. And it's cheap – Palmer and Ortega's latest prototype cost approximately $3,000 to build, but the team aims to get the price tag for their next model down to $1,000.
"This could have a significant impact on the issue of homelessness in our community and beyond," shared Ortega and Palmer's instructor Jeff Wright.
The HUT has an online presence with a website dedicated to HUT. Palmer and Ortega are currently looking for investors to help fund the costs of designing and building their next model.
