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Cardboard Emergency Housing by Peter RyanMelbourne architect Peter Ryan's prototype for a flatpack cardboard shelter could be put into full production as temporary shelter for thousands of people displaced by Hurricane Katrina and its devastation of New Orleans.
Packaging and recycling giant Visy Industries is investigating the logistics of manufacturing and supplying the shelters to relief organisations in the US and has prepared a proposal to gauge their interest in buying large quantities to house people for periods ranging from three to six months and even up to a year.
"All we require is a tooling-up period of three to four weeks and then we could be manufacturing components for the shelters around the clock," Visy marketing manager, Angela Nicholls, says.
"It would be no different to churning out cardboard boxes."
Visy has been holding discussions with Mr Ryan since Hurricane Katrina and is confident that it could produce 3000 modules of the shelters within three or four weeks of receiving a firm order.
Four modules, each measuring 1.5 metres by 3 metres by 3 metres, are required to provide liveable short term shelter for a family.
Each module costs $1500 to manufacture.
Components would be produced at Visy plants in Australia and in the US and then shipped in containers for assembly by local contractors and displaced communities
more: www.theage.com.au/news/business/k... (482)
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24/9/2005 | Viewed 9,025 time(s)
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