Resilient Homes Design Challenge generates blue prints for low-cost, disaster-resilient and sustainable houses

Since 2008, natural disasters have caused over 23 million people across the world to lose their homes. Last year, when Hurricane Maria hit the Caribbean island country of Dominica, only 11 percent of the homes on the island remained intact—which shows the impact housing design and resilient planning can play in preventing the damage wrought by various disasters resulting from climate change. 

Looking for low-cost housing solutions that can help communities better withstand natural disasters, the World Bank, Build Academy, Airbnb, the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), and UN-Habitat released a design brief in hopes of generating designs for disaster-resilient and sustainable houses that could be constructed for under $10,000. Using approaches ranging from traditional construction to 3D-printing, the winning designs responded to different scenarios from storms and flooding to landslides and earthquakes. Below, take a look at the winners. 

Scenario 1 winners: Island countries affected by earthquakes, storms, and flooding

↑ Designed by CSW Architecture | France

↑ Designed by KZ Architecture | USA

↑ Designed by Team Antu | Nicaragua 

Scenario 2 winners: Mountain and inland areas affected by earthquakes and landslides

↑ Designed by Baha Spatial Agency | Nepal

↑ Designed by Compartment S4 | India

↑ Designed by Ten | Switzerland\

Scenario 3: Coastal areas affected by storms and flooding

↑ Designed by Architects Avenue | Malaysia 

↑ Designed by PoLito | Italy

↑ Designed by Bam-S | Italy