Abstract

The Initiative reCOVER transitional housing project focuses on the design, construction and testing of transitional disaster recovery shelter prototypes for the southeast region of the United States with the intention of developing adaptable designs for other communities in the US and internationally. As part of an established multi-year partnership with Building Goodness Foundation, and Arup’s the Arup Cause Program, Initiative reCOVER is developing a disaster recovery housing prototype as a prefabricated, panelized system that can be deployed as a flat-packed unit. The development of the prototype also contextualizes a set of instructive, full-scale design-build exercises for architecture and engineering students to address functionality, sustainability, and environmental performance criteria. Lessons in conventional constructional methods and emerging digital fabrication techniques are synthesized to teach students sound foundational principles and skill sets. The purpose for designing and building this disaster recovery housing prototype in collaboration with Building Goodness Foundation is threefold – first, to address the urgent need for improved transitional housing stock for future disaster recovery efforts; second, to provide architecture and engineering students with an opportunity to learn from practical, hands-on experiences of working on important, community-based, applied research design problems; and third, to development a shelter design that combines the high quality and precision of off-site construction and computer numerically controlled fabrication with sustainable strategies for deployment, installation, use and reuse. The reCOVER/ Building Goodness Foundation shelter design is intended to supplement or replace the current recreational vehicle or travel trailer options with a more substantial and ameliorated intermediate housing stock for communities, neighborhoods, and individual families for the duration of a disaster recovery period. In collaboration with the School of Engineering, strategies of passive environmental design are being developed to optimize natural indoor light and air quality, while exterior spaces help promote social interaction and a renewed sense of community.