VISION

Background Information  

 

The problem:  More than 1 billion human beings live in sub-standard, unhealthy conditions.  World governmental and charitable organizations are addressing the housing crisis with short term projects that will never catch up with population growth.  Traditional methods for building houses are inadequate to deal with the scale of the crisis.

 

 

 

 

 

Left:  A typical self built home in Mexico.  This one housed a mother, father and four kids, including a 3 month old baby.

 

 

 

 

The Arial Home Initiative Proposition:   Start to build small homes the way Toyota builds cars, using mass production, volume purchasing, standardized designs, modular components, and continuous process improvements.  These are all auto industry techniques which could be applied to low income home construction. 

Toyota’s Kentucky plant produces a high quality, new car every 27 seconds.   A new home could be built somewhere in the world every 27 seconds through the creation of micro-manufacturing plants in the world’s poorest regions.

The goal of The Arial Home Initiative is not simply to build better homes for the poor but to create a viable, new approach towards alleviating the world’s housing crisis.

 

Traditional Thinking:

“The solution to the problem is to build the cheapest possible houses so more houses can be built with the funds."

Arial Home Proposition:

The long term solution to the problem is to build homes where the Cost per Occupant per Year is the lowest.   This means building homes that:

·        Last much longer than homes being built today

·        Require very little maintenance investment over the life of the house

·        Are larger than traditional homes to house more of the extended family

·        Build homes that are fireproof, rot proof, termite proof and water proof

·        Build to higher quality standards than existing volunteer built homes

The new style homes cost more than the “better shacks” that are being built by most charitable organizations today.   However, from a life cycle perspective, it makes more sense to invest to provide a long term solution to the crisis.  

Most poverty level homes have a useful life of 7 – 15 years, if they do not burn down or rot before that time.   An Arial Home, made from galvanized steel and polyurethane, should have a functional life of at least 50 years.

 

The above calculation also does not take into consideration in the lower cost for maintaining an “all steel” home.   For an Arial Home, the external and internal paint is bonded to the metal such that it is guaranteed for 15 years without the need for repainting.  Paint on wood surfaces in harsh climates will deteriorate in less than half that time.

 

Traditional Thinking:

“The homes should be built from local materials.”

Arial Home Proposition:

Galvanized steel is a local material.  Steel is used world wide, even in the poorest countries, for a multitude of applications. 

 Due to the universal need for insulation for refrigerators and refrigeration storage units, polyurethane can also be considered a local material.   These are the two main structural components of an Arial Home. 

Mud bricks may be even more of a local material, but that does not imply they will make a better house.

 

Traditional Thinking:

“The housing crisis will be solved if more volunteers build homes for the poor.”

Arial Home Proposition:

There will never be enough volunteers to meet the need.  Even in the unlikely event that tens of thousands of people volunteer to build homes for the poor, the costs of their travel and lodging would exceed the cost of the homes they build.  That would be a very inefficient use of philanthropic capital.

An Arial Home is designed to be built by a family and their friends in a day or two, using battery powered screw guns that will be lent to them for the task.  One experienced construction mentor, and Ikea-like, language independent instructions will make this possible.

 

Traditional Thinking:

“Local conditions are so different that it is impossible to have a standard, mass produced house design.”

Arial Home Proposition:

The beauty of a well insulated home is that it can be more comfortable for the occupants in both hot and cold climates.   If a house is structurally sound, waterproof, has a reflective white roof, is well ventilated, can flex without breaking in case of earth tremors, can flood over the roof and still be habitable afterwards with no mold or rot – then the house is going to work quite well in most places on earth.

 Arial Homes are made from modular panels that can be assembled in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit most locations and circumstances.   The homes can be grouped with a courtyard for communal living, or to create school structures, clinics or shared bathroom facilities.

 

Traditional Thinking:

“A steel house is not “green” or ecologically desirable.”

Arial Home Proposition:

Steel is one of the most easily recycled materials on earth.  While the current Arial Home design uses polyurethane insulation, rapid advances are being made in the development of soy and other fiber based insulation materials that can displace polyurethane with locally grown ingredients.

 Arial Homes recycle rain water from the roof gutter, through a micro-fiber filter into a fresh water tank.

Due to the 16 R factor of the walls and roof, and the sun reflecting nature of an Arial Home, far less energy will be expended to heat or cool an Arial Home compared to a home built from traditional materials.   Contrary to popular opinion, concrete block or mud brick homes are not inherently well insulated.

 

Traditional Thinking:

“Unskilled, ocal workers cannot operate a metal fabrication factory.”

Arial Home Proposition:

The Arial Foundation already has "proof of concept" in Ensenada, Mexico.  Six local workers with no manufacturing or construction experience are able to produce enough metal insulated panels for a new house in just one shift per day.   They are operating a very sophisticated manufacturing system.

 Arial Home Initiative volunteers in the U.S. monitor the Ensenada operations with a web cam and an on-going two, way teleconference link.  The Mexican employees require very little day-to-day support or assistance.   Thanks to the new communications satellites, and solar panels, it is possible to maintain high speed Internet communications with even the most remote locations on earth for support purposes.

 

Right:  Polyurethane injection system being installed on the metal panel  “oven” by Mexican workers.