Haiti to get shipping container homes from Vilaj Vilaj

Published: 03-Sep-2010

Canadian organisation Vilaj Vilaj has proposed to build an eco-village featuring earthquake resistant homes in the earthquake-wrecked Haiti, which will be constructed using 900 shipping containers.

Vilaj Vilaj’s $25 million unique home building plan that will offer sustainable and long-term housing for the homeless people in Haiti is backed by Haitian-Canadian actor and singer-songwriter Luck Mervil. The new eco-village, located on a parcel of previously uninhabited land near Leogane, is designed for 5,000 people.

About 900 shipping containers measuring 40 feet and 20 feet will be converted into hurricane and earthquake-resistant homes featuring a living space of nearly 320 square feet. These shipping container houses will be positioned as a cluster in a grid. Each group of houses will be separated by open space, parks, and playing fields. There are also plans to set apart spaces for companies, so that the villagers can earn a living.

Mervil and his team have already built a prototype shipping container house in Canada just in 10 days. The construction cost for the house was somewhere between $8,000 and $10,000 and the team hopes to reduce the cost for the village.

The earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010 fractured the island nation and its national, regional and local systems at all levels. In excess of 100,000 homes were destroyed and 200,000 homes were damaged in the earthquake.

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