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Architects create a tiny house for a big problem

Brian Johnson//November 23, 2017//

The Minneapolis-based Architects for Society came up with this Hex House design to serve a need for easy-to-build shelters for refugees, disaster victims and others. (Submitted rendering: Architects for Society)

The Minneapolis-based Architects for Society came up with this Hex House design to serve a need for easy-to-build shelters for refugees, disaster victims and others. (Submitted rendering: Architects for Society)

Architects create a tiny house for a big problem

Brian Johnson//November 23, 2017//

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Multiple Hex House units can be seamlessly connected in a circular fashion to accommodate large families and create gathering spaces in the middle of the circle. (Submitted rendering: Architects for Society)
Multiple Hex House units can be seamlessly connected in a circular fashion to accommodate large families and create gathering spaces in the middle of the circle. (Submitted rendering: Architects for Society)

The Minneapolis-based Architects for Society has an unusual design concept for emergency housing: a small hexagon-shaped, rapidly deployable and easy-to-build dwelling for refugees and others in desperate need of shelter.

The 14-member nonprofit, made up of architects from eight countries, is bringing that vision to life in the form of its 500-square-foot “Hex House.” The group has built two prototypes, one of which was constructed in about seven days last summer at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.

Architects for Society hopes to eventually work with organizations like the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deploy the shelters around the world. But the group also aims to commercialize the design to create affordable housing for the general public, said Amro Sallam, an architect with 20 years of experience and co-founder of Architects for Society.

Unlike other shelters where people are packed into a single room with no privacy, the Hex House includes two bedrooms, a bathroom, a porch, kitchen and common areas.

“The solution is addressing a real need,” said Sallam, a Minnesota-based architect and an instructor at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities School of Architecture and College of Design.

Sallam and his colleague Altaf Engineer discussed the award-winning Hex House at the American Institute of Architects Minnesota convention in mid-November.

Founded in 2015, Architects for Society is dedicated to “enhancing the built environment of disadvantaged communities through innovative architecture and design,” according to its website.

On average, its members have been practicing architecture for 20 years. The organization has an international flavor, with members from the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East and India.

A native of Cairo, Egypt, Sallam went to high school in Mankato and settled in the Twin Cities, which is how the organization came to be based here. He’s currently a board member of Architects for Society and he works locally for New York-based Turner Construction. He previously worked in Switzerland.

“We are all mostly mid-career architects,” Engineer, a co-founder of the organization, said at the AIA event. “We have done all kinds of projects. We have done educational buildings, high-rises, museums. And we have worked in different parts of the world.”

One thing that brought them together was a common desire to “step away and do something that was more meaningful to us,” Engineer said.

Citing figures from the United Nations, Sallam said 60 million to 80 million people worldwide have been displaced from their homes because of natural disasters or man-made disasters. The organization learned about the needs by studying refugee camps in Jordan and Syria.

Sallam noted that the average stay in a refugee camp is 17 years, and many displaced people live in makeshift dwellings such as airplane hangars. They may have shelter, but it’s not “shelter with dignity,” Sallam added.

“It is a pervasive problem,” he said. “We looked at what is being provided and it is completely inadequate.”

But the challenge of creating dignified shelter for victims of hurricanes or war is daunting. Among other things, the housing has to be low-cost, mobile, and easy to put up for people who aren’t professional builders.

Architects for Society members believe the Hex House design meets all those requirements.

Design elements include 12-foot ceilings, which give the impression of roominess within the cozy space. Designed to function “off the grid,” the house also has solar panels, and it’s raised slightly to protect against flooding and to provide some passive cooling, Sallam said.

One of the biggest challenges is to keep the cost down.

“The fundamental fact is that what we are building costs money,” Sallam said.

The prototype included about $35,000 to $40,000 worth of donated materials, Sallam said. The total cost was about $40,000 to $50,000. He hopes to get that down to about $50 to $60 per square foot, which works out to $25,000 to $30,000 for a 500-square-foot dwelling.

Sallam said it’s hard to pinpoint how much one of those homes would cost on the open market without donated materials or labor. But a ballpark guess is around $100,000 for a home in Minnesota with all of the plumbing, electrical and mechanical work.

To keep construction costs down, the design team used “structural insulated panels” which come together more quickly and easily than standard wood-framed construction, Sallam noted.

Sallam said the hexagon shape is ideal in part because it’s sturdy and it lends itself to quick construction. Multiple units can be seamlessly connected in a circular fashion to accommodate large families and create gathering spaces in the middle of the circle.

While cost and funding are major barriers, the biggest challenge is getting people to “understand your vision” and persuading organizations like FEMA to implement it, Sallam said.

“We are not the ones generating the solution,” he added. “We are just a conduit of the solution.”

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