Progressive Housing with Permanent Core Dwelling resistant to Natural Hazards

The present situation with an accelerating population growth worldwide will generate unprecedented demands on several crucial supply factors including shelter, especially in developing and underdeveloped countries. And as many of these countries are regularly exposed to natural hazards that frequently turn into disasters, this project has identified as a logic consequence to focus the research on securitising the habitat. A safe habitat in these countries is of fundamental importance and necessity to allow for a dynamic growth of the grass-root and full economies. And economic strength is of major importance to solve other crucial supply problems. The objective of this ongoing research project is to propose architectural and technical solutions for quality guaranteed, new or re-construction by first building a natural hazard resistant core dwelling using recycled 20ft ISO shipping containers, then integrating the core in a progressive owner-driven housing structure. NB it is not concerning container architecture/housing using containers as final residential volumes. The project demonstrates the architectural, structural and risk reduction potential of this solution. Full attention is paid to blend in the structure with the existing culture, and vernacular and prevailing local architecture. The project phases follow an evolution/feed-back system of Feasibility ⇔ Implementability ⇔ Adoptability ⇔ Acceptability that will minimize the risks of output repellence. The paper presents the state of progress of the research project, which deals with the production of first concepts, the outcomes of workshops held at EPFL, in India, in Malaysia about architectural and technical solutions, as well as structural tests on containers with unreinforced openings. A truly interdisciplinary and international project. The research is implemented in international collaboration between interdisciplinary teams at three universities, whereof two in South-Asian natural-disaster-ridden developing countries with different cultural profiles. Interdisciplinary-humanitarian student projects. In connection with the research work, the topic is also proposed to undergraduate students as projects at the participating academic institutions.