"...House Arc, a 150-square-foot structure of hollow steel tubes. Not only can the 3,000-pound modular home withstand high winds, it can also be boxed into a 120 cubic-foot (i.e., 5x6x4) freight container and shipped off to its next destination."
How is a 150 sq ft reusable house that costs $55,000 any better than a FEMA trailer ?
Besides needing tools to assemble (which may not be readily available in a disaster area immediately after the disaster) being very expensive and large in freight volume compared to tents and cots...
This sounds like it is not a first line response item, more of an intermediate plan for after things in a disaster area have been stabilized as a stop-gap measure while those displaced by the event are waiting for the permanent housing to be rebuilt...
Well, it is, as you said, "reusable." The FEMA trailers are not. Or at least I've never seen any on the market. Further, they are probably usable at the get-go and do not subject the occupants to deadly (some say) formaldehyde fumes.
Good point. For a mere $1,000 extra, the designers could include a "tool kit" of necessary items.
Or a back-yard apartment for your mother-in-law. Or a hunting cabin in the woods.
On the latter, I'd be afraid someone could disassemble the thing and steal it. Then, on the other hand, who but a Manhattanite would believe 150 sq ft is a livable space. A monkey at the Bronx Zoo has more square feet in his cage.
If you'll remember that FEMA is part of the US government, I think you've answered your own question.
Include the tools.
You think people will be allowed to sleep in tents?
They were allowed to sleep in tents during the Israelite exodus from Egypt up to the present-day Occupy movement. So I guess it's possible.
I know Obama was there, but he wasn't President yet.
"Reusable" under perfect conditions in that someone saved the packing crate during use... That someone takes care to not lose any pieces during the dismantlement process... That it remains undamaged after use...
$55,000 is a lot of cinder blocks and mortar... It is even more tents and cots... But for ONE emergency shelter dwelling that is reusable ? Pricey...
Manufactured homes need to be acceptable to and approved by your local AHJ in order for you to erect them as a dwelling unit... $55,000 is a rather expensive
150 sq ft "shed"...$1,000 extra for tools, eh ? How much extra for furnishings so someone can live in the thing ? Better include some of those tents and cots anyway... Not to mention fully illustrated non-written assembly guides so they can be deployed anywhere in the world and assembled like a Lego play set...
While it is green in that it is reusable, it still sounds too expensive and the ROI would take a while to see... Even single use tents and cots would see more utility as they can be sent into a 3rd world situation with limited sanitation capabilities and left for the indigenous personnel to keep -- your reusable kit hut would have to be brought back to a central warehouse somewhere, completely cleaned and sterilized and checked to see if it can be put back together -- further increasing the costs... A torn tent can be sewn and patched with many various technologies ranging from low to high...
Yes, I think in a disaster area people are allowed to sleep in tents when every building in the area lays ruined in piles of debris... Even more so in a 3rd world country where a tent might be considered a luxury accommodation...
You really are dense.
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