DESIGN AND DISASTER MITIGATION ABEJERO

NAZARENO

REGALARIO

TUAZON

•INTRODUCTION

Disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society

involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources.

Disasters are seen as the consequence of inappropriately managed risk. These risks are the product of a combination of both hazard/s and vulnerability. Hazards that strike in areas with low vulnerability will never become disasters, as is the case in uninhabited regions.

Hazard

is a situation that poses a level of threat to life, health, property, or environment. Most hazards are dormant or potential, with only a theoretical risk of harm; however, once a hazard becomes "active", it can create an emergency situation.

Hazards are routinely divided into natural or human-made, although complex disasters, where there is no single root cause, are more common in developing countries. A specific disaster may spawn a secondary disaster that increases the impact.• Natural Hazard is a natural process or phenomenon that may cause loss of life,

injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.

Various phenomena like earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards, tsunamis, and cyclones are all natural hazards.

Earthquake- shaking of land surface due to tectonic plate movements Flood- rise in water level due to heavy rains, dam burst, etc. Drought- severe shortage of water and failure of crop due to scarcity or

no rain period. Ecological Disaster-excessive mining, deforestation, etc. trigger

imbalance in environment that has cascading effect on ecology of the region. Landslide- results from earth tremors or from heavy rains that make mountain- tops weak for collaps. Tsunami- mainly earthquake induced

Human-Instigated disasters are the consequence of technological hazards. Examples include stampedes, fires, transport accidents, industrial accidents, oil spills, nuclear explosions/radiation, War, deliberate and terrorism.

“All disasters are hence the result of human failure to introduce appropriate disaster

management measures.”

PHILIPPINE DISASTERSAccording to the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the

Philippines were the fourth most accident prone country in the world. One of the reasons why Philippines became one of the most disaster-prone country because it is located along the pacific ring of fire.

Ring of Fire is an area where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions occur in the basin of the Pacific Ocean

Mitigation is the effort to reduce loss of life and property by lessening the impact of disasters. Mitigation is taking action now—before the next disaster—to reduce human and financial consequences later (analyzing risk, reducing risk, insuring against risk). Effective mitigation requires that we all understand local risks, address the hard choices and invest in long-term community well-being. Without mitigation actions, we jeopardize our safety, financial security and self-reliance.

Goals of Disaster Mitigation:• Avoid or reduce the potential losses from hazards• Assure prompt and appropriate assistance to victims of disaster• Achieve rapid and effective recovery.

----Mitigation is under disaster management cycle.

Disaster management is the discipline that involves preparing, warning, supporting and rebuilding societies when natural or man-made disasters occur. It is the continuous process in an effort to avoid or minimize the impact of disasters resulting from hazards. Effective disaster management relies on thorough integration of emergency plans at all levels of government and non-government involvement.

• ResponseIncludes actions taken to save lives, prevent damage to property, and to preserve the environment during emergencies or disasters. It is the implementation of action plans.• Recovery Includes actions that assist a community to return to a sense of normalcy after a disaster.• Mitigation (described above)• Risk reductionAnticipatory measures and actions that seek to avoid future risks as a result of a disaster.

• PreventionAvoiding a disaster at the eleventh hour. Includes activities which actually eliminate or reduce the probability of disaster occurrence, or reduce the effects of unavoidable disasters.• PreparednessPlans made to save lives or property, and help the response and rescue service operations. This phase covers implementation/operation, early warning systems and capacity building so the population will react appropriately when an early warning is issued.

The National Disaster Control Center (NDCC) was created on October 19, 1970, as the forerunner of the National Disaster Coordinating Council created under PD 1566. It serves as the highest policy-making body for disasters in the country and includes almost all Department Secretaries as members.It is headed by the Sec. of National Defense as Chairman.The disaster coordinating councils (DCCs) from the regional, provincial, city and municipal level, on the other hand, are composed of representatives of national government agencies operating at these levels and local officials concerned.

ADAPTIVE ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGNS

Adaptive architecture

Typhoon season has started. If there’s one thing we’ve learned from Super Typhoon Yolanda, it’s that we need to start preparing for the worst, and we need to think of practical and innovative ways to arm ourselves for the inevitable.Adaptive architecture is an answer to the growing urban population and the increasing need to adapt to the changing landscape as the country becomes more vulnerable to natural and man-made disasters.

Look at Netherlands. Two-thirds of the country is below sea-level, yet they have made the necessary adjustments in their infrastructure planning and architecture in order to adapt to the changing climate.

The 2012 World Risk report has established the Philippines as the third most vulnerable country to natural risks. Typhoons have grown in power since the 1970s, and are expected to grow stronger, as with other disaster risks.

Design with nature

Know your area’s flood and earthquake history. For those building their new homes, it’s the architects and engineer’s job to know the history of the area when it comes to flood and earthquakes. Is the area near a fault line?Is it prone to liquefaction? ( Liquefaction is a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading.) When was the last big flood, and how high did the flood waters reach? If your house is built on an incline, what is possibility of a landslide occurring? (Check Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) and the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOCS) dedicated interactive websites and pages.The most practical approach for new homeowners is to look for the oldest house near your area and check if its entrances are built higher from the street level, the same way I look for old churches whenever the firm has to develop a new structure in a flood-prone area because old churches always build their altars and tabernacles higher than the last highest recorded flood line to protect their altars from getting wet.

If your house is located on a coastal area, then common sense (and lessons learned from Super Typhoon Yolanda) should tell you to build your house away from the coast with livable rooms tow meters higher than the worst flood line.

Design considerations for a stronger home

Flat concrete roof decks and round structures have been proven most resilient towards high-speed winds and from the destructive forces of flashfloods and tsunamis. Elevate your house higher by building it on stilts or columns.

Usually called wet flood-proofing, this allows water to pass through the lower/ground floor of the house and prevents lasting damage to the structural foundation of the house.

Another method is dry flood-proofing, where all exterior walls and openings are sealed to prevent water from entering the house, but given the extreme weather events the world has been experiencing, the best method is still wet flood-proofing as it is more flexible towards varying natural risks, like storm surges and flash floods. Protect windows by installing storm shutters.

For protection against earthquakes, consider a load-bearing design which readily adapts to the ground’s movement. Using a cross-bracing system for the walls, roof, and columns provides better strength against lateral forces so that the structure doesn’t collapse sideways. If your budget permits it, add a safe room in your house plans that your family can take refuge from.

Elevate electricity outlets. In case of flash floods, it’s always best to install electricity outlets away from and higher than the flood lines. For homes with more than one floor, create separate circuits for the each floor to prevent lasting damage to your electrical system and prevent electric shocks.

Invest in disaster mitigation technologies. Strengthen your defense against natural disasters by installing a rainwater storage tanks or alternative sources of energy (solar panels, wind turbines) in your home you can use these green technologies to provide a good source of energy post-disaster. Investing in these technologies can make a huge difference in case of a calamity.

DISASTER RESILIENT DESIGN

So What Does ‘Resilient Design’ Entail When It Comes to Building?To design a building with resiliency means to start the design process by thinking carefully about the typical use scenarios of the building, common points of stress due to normal use, as well as the most likely disaster situations in the environment that could challenge the integrity of the building and/or endanger its occupants. The local environment always plays a critical role in determining the factors that make a building resilient or not, and so resilient design is always locally specific.

Emergency Resiliency & Disaster PreparednessSo how can we build resiliency into commercial buildings? The first step is to consider all possible and likely disaster scenarios, as well as all sources of general everyday stress, and then start the design process with all of these considerations in mind.

Seismic Considerations

When it comes to devastating natural disasters, earthquakes are high up on the list, but what many people don’t realize is that much of the damage in earthquakes occurs largely due to poorly constructed buildings and faulty infrastructure. Fortunately, there are many new technologiesand building methods that allow buildings to be increasingly ductile and able to withstand severe seismic activity. Contrary to what the layperson might think, a structure’s ability to flex and absorb vibration is just as important as how strong it is when it comes to earthquake-proof design. One of the most popular seismic building methods is base isolation, which is exactly what it sounds like — decoupling the base of a structure from the rest of the building so that only the base shakes during an earthquake while the superstructure remains intact. As with all seismic construction, expansion joints are deployed within, between, and around structures to allow the building to move without damage during seismic activity. Chances are you have never seen an expansion joint before, but hundreds of thousands of people walk over them everyday without realizing it due to expansion joint covers. Expansion joint covers are designed to provide a seamless look while concealing the gaps beneath the floor’s surface. These covers allow the day-to-day movement of a structure’s thermal expansion and contraction, but also allow much greater movement during seismic events. Expansion joint covers are designed to remain intact during a seismic event, to allow egress of the buildings’ occupants, and after a seismic event, to allow entry back into the building. Above all, good seismic design not only helps a building be resilient, but protects occupant life!

Seismic testing can be used on components of buildings, model representations, and even entire buildings at actual scale to determine their resilience in withstanding earthquakes. A common way to test the seismic resilience of a design is to use a “Shake Table”. This is a rectangular platform which is coupled to hydraulic motion actuators to shake the platform in different ways and therefore, test structural models or building components with a wide range of simulated ground motions, including reproductions of recorded earthquakes time-historie

Extreme Weather: Storms, Hurricanes, FloodingAs climate change brings rising sea levels and more extreme weather events, building designers need to focus extra attention on the challenges of weather –especially hurricanes and flooding. When designing commercial buildings in hurricane and flood prone areas, special attention needs to be paid to designing to resist severe wind load, as well as heavy precipitation, and ground-level flooding. Buildings in hurricane prone areas need to be very well-sealed, as well as have adequate drainage solutions for roofs, terraces, basements, and any other areas which may collect water. For mechanical rooms, where adequate ventilation and outside air-intake is important, storm-resistant louvers are a good choice for maximizing air intake while blocking wind and driving rain. They’re designed specifically to let air in and keep wind and driven-rain out.

Flood barrier walls are obvious solutions to the threat of flooding on the ground level, as well as not locating emergency backup generators, or anything else important, in the basement. On this note, smart building designers would do well to locate all important mechanicals on the tops of buildings rather than in the basement, in flood-prone regions. As previously mentioned, if New York City’s east river hospitals were built more resiliently, with important mechanicals on top floors rather than basement, they would have fared far better during Hurricane Sandy and not had to close operations and evacuate. The Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital in Boston, designed by Perkins + Will (and awarded LEED gold), is a great example of what to do when it comes to the location of important mechanical systems. As you can see from the above photo, the hospital’s mechanicals are housed in the top floor of the building, so in the event of flooding or storm surges, the hospital is much less likely to lose power and need to evacuate its patients.

Extreme Heat & Cold

The same types of passive design strategies that can be employed in homes to make them super energy efficient and green, can also be used in commercial buildings to result in everyday energy savings as well as life-saving natural heating and cooling options in a disaster situation without access to electrical power (and therefore mechanical HVAC). For example, if electricity is knocked out due to a flood or earthquake, or even if there is just a common “blackout”, an all-glass office building can quickly become like an oven on a hot summer day, potentially risking the health and lives of occupants inside. Proper insulation, natural ventilation with operable windows, solar shading devices, and employing stack ventilation can help buildings remain comfortable for inhabitants even when there is no mechanical heating and cooling available.

Implementing solar shading devices is critical – not only for the unlikely event of a power outage or natural disaster, but also just to increase occupants comfort and to help to reduce the energy and cooling costs of a building during normal year round use.

Fire ResistanceFire is a danger as old as architecture itself — as long as humanity has had buildings, we’ve faced the threat of them catching fire. Most building code adequately addresses common fire hazards with mandatory fire-resistant stairwells, fire-resistant building materials and proper escape methods, but these days we also need to plan carefully to address fires caused by earthquakes, lightning and other natural disasters. In addition to urban fire hazards, wildfires are a growing threat in the Western United States, and steps that can be taken to protect commercial buildings against wildfire include fire-resistant landscaping, brush-clearing, and barrier zones in wildfire prone areas.

Everyday Resiliency & Normal Wear and TearNow that we’ve scared you with our focused look at natural disasters, let’s get back to the facts of day-to-day life. On average, a commercial building has a lifespan of 73 years (Source: 2010 Buildings Energy Data Book, US DOE), meaning over almost a century, many commercial structures will see millions of human feet trudging through its spaces. Truly resilient buildings need to not just withstand natural disasters, but they need to last through years of constant, unremitting use. So how do you make a building last longer? Designers need to build in day-to-day durability with tight building envelopes and long-lasting, low-maintenance interior finishes.

Durable Building Envelopes

First and foremost, commercial building needs to be built to last, and external building stressors start at the building envelope. A resilient, durable building employs proper sealing and insulation, especially at windows, doors and roofs, including the use of highly insulated windows (double or triple pane, often with a low-E seal and/or inert gas between panes), as well as adequate moisture protection, including flashing, drainage and moisture barriers.Not all disasters are natural. Sometimes there is human error or mechanical failure. Another concept which is important to consider when it comes to the building envelope is explosion venting.Explosion venting is often used in industrial and power generation facilities where there can be a rapid pressure release or explosion (power plants, manufacturing operations, grain mills). These types of buildings need field-testable, resettable pressure relief vents that activate at very low pressures (5psf) to protect the structural integrity of the building. Explosion vents help release pressure, helping buildings to survive the natural and manmade disasters involving explosions and excess internal pressure.

Construction Specialties Entrance Flooring (GridLine, DesignStep & PediTred) at 525 William Penn Place in Pittsburgh, PA

Interior Finishes

Doors and entrance points need to be made especially durable, as they are the most highly-trafficked parts of a commercial building, and the most common points of failure. Think about your local bank or workplace, and how many people walk through the entrance on a daily basis, doors whipping open and closed hundreds of times in an hour, thousands of dirty (sometimes wet) feet trudging throughout the building yearly. Doors and entrance flooring take a lot of abuse, so if you want a durable building, it is imperative to have robust entrance doors and flooring be to withstand a high level of traffic. Durable entrance floor systems help buildings stand the test of time by effectively stopping dirt, water and foreign contaminants from entering a building’s interior.Specialty flooring that use tread rails, grids or robust carpeting have the ability to collect large amounts of dirt and moisture. Dirt and particulates damage floor finishes throughout the entire building, so stopping it at the door helps extend the life of all the floor finishes and reduce cleaning and replacement costs.

Construction Specialties Acrovyn Doors at the Digestive Health Waldon Endoscopy Center in Tacoma, WA

Another way to build resilience into a building is with interior doors that will endure years upon years of use. Most commercial interiors use standard wood doors. Occasionally, high pressure laminate doors are used for greater longevity, but for true durability an architect needs to really invest in doors with a long-lasting product that is built resistant to tearing, chips and cracks. The most resilient doors are those that employ a “kit of parts” approach so that when damage does occur, only the damaged piece needs to be replaced and not the entire door.

Interior walls take almost as much abuse as floors, but in the case of walls, the culprits are more often wheeled objects than feet. While thousands of scuffling feet may sound bad, walls have a unique challenge in withstanding thousands of bumps and scrapes with moving objects (eg. food carriers, carts, luggage). If building longevity is a goal, protecting interior walls is especially important, and one way this can be done is with interior wall guards such as handrails, crash rails and corner guards.

Constuction Specialties’ Acrovyn Wall Protection at the Avera Behavioral Health Center in Sioux Falls, SD

In ConclusionAs we’ve explored in this article, resilient design is a complex and many-faceted paradigm that involves long-term thinking about worst-case disaster scenarios, as well as more common, everyday wear. Though the variables which contribute to resilience are many, and often complicated – the larger lesson is simple: buildings need to be resilient in order to be truly sustainable. Photovoltaics and low-flow toilets are not enough for ‘sustainability’ – a building needs to be able to stand the test of time. As architect Carl Elefante once said, “The greenest building is the one that’s already built,” so our goal should be, as architects, to design buildings that last longer than we do.

(feeling ko magagamit ntin to sa major plate nten n resort) - master

Sustainable Building Design

Building construction requires a great deal of energy and material resources, which obviously has an impact on the environment. Every building, as a result of its construction, operations, and maintenance, has its own indoor environmental issues and challenges that must be managed. The concept of Sustainable Building Design has grown out of concern to save energy and resources as well as the need to provide healthier indoor environments. Combining our architectural background with our expertise in materials science, IEQ, and moisture dynamics, MAI provides unique insights into building sustainability.

Selection of building materials and methods directly impacts building sustainability and performance. Sustainability involving the use of recycled materials and energy efficiency requiring high levels of insulation, for example, are the current trends in architecture. In recent years, mold has increasingly become a source for indoor air quality problems in buildings. In the past, exterior walls were uncomplicated structures without insulation, and with vast capability for storing any water that entered the wall assembly; this kept water away from sensitive building materials. Modern construction methods and materials, however, combined with the need to insulate, have changed this. More organic materials that can support mold growth are now used in wall construction. Construction practices moving toward lighter assemblies have removed materials that are able to store water that enters the wall. These trends have resulted in a stock of buildings with the potential to be sensitive to moisture problems and mold growth. MAI addresses problems dealing with such issues as material selection and building envelope design.

MAI provides complete architectural support and building commissioning services, including healthy building and sustainable building design. MAI's services include site design ranging from residential to commercial to industrial settings. In addition to licensed architects and engineers, MAI's staff includes LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Accredited Professionals) as well as experts in construction management, building materials, and indoor environmental quality (IEQ).

Licensed to practice architecture in numerous states, including Florida and New York, MAI provides architectural support or design-build services on new projects as well as projects involving renovation or site restoration. MAI provides comprehensive project planning services, including feasibility studies, scheduling, and cost estimating services.

In addition to new construction, existing buildings are candidates for "greening." MAI has a thorough understanding of sustainable building practices and principles and is familiar with guidelines and rating systems for optimum building performance, such as LEED and other systems. Working in conjunction with The Environmental Institute in Atlanta, Georgia, MAI has developed and regularly instructs a course in Mold Assessment and Remediation that attracts contractors, building owners, and facility managers from across the United States. MAI is the author of "Mold and Moisture Damage in Building Envelopes" in The Whole Building Design Guide, published by the National Institute of Building Sciences.MAI's disaster recovery planning services are linked to sustainability.

Consideration of hurricane readiness in sustainable design, specifically in the use of building materials and construction techniques, is critical for new buildings as well as existing buildings. Some buildings in New Orleans, for example, suffered building envelope damage and also encountered water intrusion due to wind-driven rain as a result of Hurricane Katrina; other buildings fared better. The issues faced by building owners and managers, as well as insurers and lenders, in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath ranged from structural concerns to mold remediation to insurance claims to re-occupancy monitoring.

In sustainable design, there obviously needs to be a consideration of the cost implications of "green" building decisions. MAI applies Life Cycle Costing techniques to optimize the trade-offs between first costs and operating costs to arrive at a facility design that has the lowest possible cost of operation.

DESIGNS AND INVENSIONS

Design against the Elements

Design Against the Elements is a global architectural design contest formed by a partnership of the Quezon City government, Climate Change Commission, MyShelter Foundation, United Architects of the Philippines, and Philippine White Helmets. The contest was open to local and international architects, with separate categories for professionals and students.

Launched in May 2010, the contest was spurred by the devastation caused by the tropical storm Ondoy which notoriously flooded many of Metro Manila cities in September 2009. The design competition is geared towards innovative and green design for urban poor communities.

The following are two of the winning projects for the green design award in the professional and student categories, respectively.

Disaster-Proof Bamboo HousingThis bamboo-made housing community is made of cluster housing units, two community centers, prayer and meditation space, a library, and plenty of open green space.

Designed by an Indian group of architects (Vasanth Packirisamy, Monish Kumar, Vikas Sharma, Sakshi Kumar, and Komal Gupta), this is a master-planned eco community built for sustainability, with features such as bioswales, rainwater collection, grey water recycling, and plantations intended for community food supply.The housing units and community halls are built on stilts with side elevation designed to avoid flooding and withstand storms. Moreover, the landscape is designed to direct the water from the cluster housing units toward the lower elevation and to absorb stormwater as much as it can.The housing concept for this design is that each apartment unit is built around a core which holds the kitchen and the bathroom, along with necessities such as water lines, power, and staircases. Plugin units made up of large bamboo decks radiate from the core and function as living room and bedroom/s.The idea is that in the event of a dreadful typhoon when plugin units are destroyed, the core refuge areas would remain intact. As they are made of bamboo, plugin units can be easily and inexpensively rebuilt and plugged into the existing core.Other cool features of the housing structure is that it’s designed to collect rainwater through the roof funnel which goes down to a storage tank at the bottom. Meanwhile emergency food stores and a fresh water tank is secured at the top of the building.

Green Design by Nikola Enchev and Stefan VankovThis Green Design community has facilities such as multi-purpose hall, market, school/day care center, waste treatment, plantation, and waste management facilities.

This master-planned community is carefully designed to overcome the rough topography and highly irregular shape of its site, at the same time, create local focus points, a communal small scale employment, and allow floodwaters to drain properlyReinforced concrete makes up the ground story base of the community structures, which with its lateral stability in all directions, provide earthquake resistance and protects against water and insects. The concrete base is securely connected to the upper storeys which are made of bamboo, intended to be easily maintained by future residents.What is amazing about the designed community is that the dwelling structures are built as hexagonal modules. According to the designers, the hexagonal shape is naturally stable, braced in all directions with equal sides. Since it can be mirrored along its side, it can share the same frame with another hexagonal module, thus increasing its stability.

Build Forward

Build Forward is a nationwide competition launched through the partnership of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), property developer Ortigas & Co., and Habitat for Humanity. As a rallying response to the wake of destruction left by the super typhoon Yolanda, it encouraged architectural students to submit climate-adaptive designs for houses and public schools.The design specifications emphasize low-cost and the speed by which the project can be built within a short period of time. It required that the materials be locally sourced and sustainable, can withstand wind gusts of 250 km/h, and an intensity 8 earthquake.Here are the two projects that won Build Forward’s house and school design. The winning entries will serve as design models for the houses and public schools in areas badly affected by typhoon Yolanda.

Bambox HutBambox Hut: Amphibious Housing for Taclobenos.

University of Santo Tomas’s architecture student Lara Therese Cruz house design won first place for the piece called Bambox Hut, an amphibious house that floats on water.What makes the house float are the welded metal drums attached to the concrete platform, pushed by the buoyant force of the water while the vertical movement is guided by side steel posts which keeps the whole house from bobbing out of controlGoing even further, the structural concept of her piece is built to resist the onslaught of strong winds and earthquakes. The roof shape offers an aerodynamic feature that rides the wind while remaining firmly attached to the structural hollow steel frame. The frame is designed to hold the whole house structure together without chances of the roof tearing from the wall. In effect, the roof and wall is built as one, grounded securely to the concrete pier which increases the unit’s overall stability.The architect creatively combined local materials such as bamboo, cocoboard, lumber, and abaca with steel, metal, and reinforced concrete to produce not only a disaster-resilient house but also a pleasing one to look at. Other features such as roof insulation, rainwater harvesting, and the small details that go into the house’s envelope, further enhance the overall design.

TaklobAn entry from a trio of University of the Philippines architecture students Mervin Afan, Corenne Martin, and Rafael Khemlani, Taklob is a school which also doubles as an evacuation center.

The school design ingeniously mimics the concave, half-cylinder roofing structure of airplane hangars designed to weather the pressure of plane streams. With its steel framing system, built-up arches, aerodynamic roof form, and its 1-meter elevation from the ground, the school is designed to survive strong typhoon winds and keep out from the storm surges.Wide jalousie windows and clerestory allows cross-ventilation and natural light to pour in the interiors. Really cool features include roll-down storm shutters and retractable clerestory windows which provide cover against the typhoon up to ground level. In action, they serve like a movable cover or lid, which the Filipino word “taklob” means and from which the design is named after.

Pop-Up Apartments: Post-Disaster Housing PrototypePROJECT INFO Name: Urban Post Disaster Housing PrototypeLocation: Brooklyn, NY Country: USAType: Modular HousingStatus: CompleteSize: 2,100 sq. ft.Client: NYC Office of Emergency ManagementProject Manager: Army Corps of EngineersGeneral Contractor: American Manufactured Structures and ServicesArchitect: Garrison Architects

This modular cable cabins can be stacked vertically or set side-by-side in a variety of urban settings, from vacant lots to public spaces.The units were designed to meet the strictest zoning requirements in the United States so they can be quickly deployed to any location in the country within hours.Each individual unit is self-contained and can host families of various sizes, expanding from a one bedroom up to a three bedroom. Prefabricated in Indiana, the units also feature a living room, bathroom, fully-equipped kitchen, storage space and balcony.