Photographs: Courtesy, MIT website.
For over 1.5 billion people who live on just $1 a day, buying a house will remain a far-fetched dream.
To address this alarming issue, MIT has come up with a $1,000 solution. While housing prices have zoomed to $1,000 per sq metre, MIT s low-cost house will cost just $1,000 (Rs 47,000).
The Pinwheel House has been designed by Ying Chee Chui, a graduate of MIT s Department of Architecture, has been built in Mianyang, in Sichuan Province, China.
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Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
Photographs: Courtesy, Mashable.
It is not just MIT that is looking at low cost housing. Vijay Govindarajan, one of the world's foremost management thinkers, plans to build affordable, environmentally friendly home for just $300 (yes, $300 or about Rs 14,000!) creating a gargantuan $375-billion opportunity for corporations the world over.
Govindarajan, the Earl C Daum 1924 Professor of International Business at Dartmouth's Tuck School, had organised a global competition -- The $300 House Challenge -- calling for design ideas for such houses that would help better the quality of billions of poor people across the world, especially in developing countries. The roof of this $300 house would be an inexpensive solar panel and battery that helps provide electricity to home to light it up, charge a mobile phone, maybe power a television set. ...Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
Meanwhile, Ying Chee Chui s house features hollow brick walls with steel bars for reinforcement, wooden box beams. It can withstand earthquakes too.
The Pinwheel House has a modular layout, with rectangular room units surrounding a central courtyard space and is well-ventilated.
...Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
Photographs: Courtesy, MIT.
The price cap of $1,000 is a rigorous but achievable goal to provide quality housing to a new and emerging market in developing countries around the world, according to MIT.
The intent of the price is to allow a large economic group to afford proper housing for the first time....
Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
Implementing innovative and quality design can provide not only affordable housing, but also housing that improves the quality of life for the inhabitants.
This includes providing safety, sanitation, and comfort....
Low-cost homes from $300 to $1,000!
The $1,000 House has been designed to harvest energy and treat waste in a self-sustained way.
It can be built with a hybrid of the traditional, local and recycled building materials and latest industrial products. A team of MIT students is working on buildings the low cost houses in countries like India, China, Philippines and other countries. After the successful 1K House project, MIT aims to create a series of home designs, for Japan. It would cost $10,000 to build these houses.
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