How can housing in crisis areas, where infrastructure and buildings are lacking, be created with more sustainable solutions than the tents and reinforced tents often used today? Can concepts of blocks of wooden cabins be developed based on prefabricated small blocks with wooden frames?
Today, the Swedish Agency for Security and Preparedness (MSB), the Red Cross and other relief actors are sending aid to crisis areas where there is a lack of organized housing, such as after earthquakes, forest fires, hurricanes and wars. Over the past year, Europe has been hit by crises in the form of wars and earthquakes. Climate conditions in the affected areas during the winter months can be such that living in tents can be a challenge.
The possibility of building better for climate-adapted semi-permanent housing with higher quality housing and with wood as a base at the same cost as tents has been investigated. In other words: Can wooden cabins made by the Swedish housing industry replace tents in crisis areas?
Conducted interviews with municipalities in Ukraine, Turkey, MSB, UNHCR and several actors in the aid industry provided a list of conditions for building. Conditions on site are often very basic, with poor roads that do not carry heavy traffic, no access to cranes on site and sometimes not even electricity to charge screwdrivers. This means that the construction system needs to consist of lightweight building elements that can be lifted and assembled on simple foundations by 2-4 people using hand power and simple tools.
The preliminary study showed that a new concept of prefabricated so-called small blocks could be the starting point to meet the listed conditions. A building system with lightweight building elements for assembly by local people without special training during one day would be fully possible. The concept as a whole would consist of small blocks with, for example, 8 dwellings of 16 or 20 square meters without electricity and plumbing around a functional building with kitchen and hygiene facilities. The homes would be delivered as flat packages and the functional building as a prefabricated volume element.
A smaller community center in the same simple building system could also be developed for different needs such as a hospital, preschool/school or community center. With a view to a possible useful life of 1-10 years or even longer for the buildings and the possibility of reusing dismantled elements in future permanent housing solutions to be built.
A Swedish wooden house company has a product development process already developed that can be simplified/adapted to suit the envisaged concept. In the fall of 2023, the development of a pilot project is underway to send a number of cabins to Turkey and/or Ukraine for a so-called Proof-of-Concept to verify the function and cost of the concept.
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This is an article from our magazine Trävärden, it is available in full here! (Link)
