NEW YORK, Sept. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — The World Bank, Build Academy, Airbnb, and the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) have launched a global crowd-solving challenge for designs of Resilient Homes. The goal of this challenge is to generate designs for low-cost and sustainable small houses (under $10,000) for people living in vulnerable areas affected by natural disasters. The deadline for design submissions is this November 30, 2018.

Natural disasters are on the rise. Since 1990, they have affected 217 million people every single year. Hundreds of floods, storms, heat waves and droughts have left about 606,000 people dead and 4.1 billion injured or homeless around the world since 1995. In the aftermath of last year’s Hurricane Maria impacting the Caribbean island country of Dominica, only 11% of the entire housing stock on the island remained intact. It is often the poorest that suffer the most from these shocks.

We have the opportunity to mitigate their effects and provide solutions that can minimize the impact, save lives and help communities recover faster. We are hence calling upon architects, engineers, designers and aid workers to help design resilient, modular, low-cost and sustainable homes, both for reducing risk of natural hazards and for rapid reconstruction following a disaster.

Architects, engineers, and designers from all over the world can enter the competition either individually or as teams. There is no registration fee for participation. The challenge has been designed for three scenarios:

  • Scenario 1: island countries affected by earthquakes, storms and flooding;
  • Scenario 2: mountain and inland areas affected by earthquakes and landslides;
  • Scenario 3: coastal areas affected by storms and flooding

Design teams can submit designs for any or all three of the scenarios per preference.

Design teams are encouraged to look beyond “fully pre-fabricated” housing designs with incorporating local building materials into their designs. Designs could be part pre-fabricated with a clear aim towards ease and low cost of construction.

Winners will be announced on December 14, 2018 after careful review by a highly reputable, international Jury of experts. Winning designs will be published and winners will be invited to exhibit at the World Bank in Washington DC, USA and other select global venues. Winning designs could also eventually inform resilient housing or reconstruction work for World Bank-funded projects in places like the Caribbean, South and East Asia, etc.

To join the challenge and for more information visit: http://www.ResilientHomesChallenge.com

Partnering organizations: 
World Bank, Build Academy, Airbnb and GFDRR