The 1,000 dollar home : a scalable business model to build disaster relief dwellings and upgrade slums

This thesis proposes a new model for the private markets to build disaster relief dwellings or to upgrade degraded neighborhoods of very low income communities. The study offers a way to empower the dwellers of very poor communities or the victims of natural disasters not only by providing them with financial support, but equally important by also providing them with a construction method that allows for a progressive build up of their dwellings. In doing so, the author argues that the residents of poor, informal settlements could act as developers of good quality housing and successfully improve their communities. The analysis leading to the proposed new model is based on the following: 1. A review of other private sector precedents to empower the communities of impoverished settlements or victims of natural disasters. Such precedents have had varying degrees of success, and illustrate the difficulties in implementing a method that can be scaled up universally to meet the overwhelming need for low cost housing. 2. A specific technical solution to build low cost houses by relying on the use of stabilized earth compacted and packaged into polypropylene skin, forming a continuous durable brick, as the main construction material and a self-build approach that can guarantee the affordability while also providing for a safe and good quality dwelling unit.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2006

Author dc:creator

• Cañzio, Luis (Del Cañzio)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dennis Frenchman.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/38916

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/38916