GreenMobile: Eco Prefab

Image by Michael Berk (double click image for higher resolution)


In response to the Katrina toxic trailer debacle, the federal government appropriated $400 million for alternative temporary housing.

Mississippi's Katrina Cottage concept got the lion's share of the money, but a respectable thin sliver - almost $6 million - went to fund the production of a lesser known concept - Michael Berk's GreenMobile.

The GreenMobile, pronounced like the oil company, not the auto-, is a factory-produced, transportable, expandable, affordable green home that can serve as a "port after the storm" or as permanent domicile. This prototype ties into existing infrastructure or can be equipped to go it alone as self-sustaining living quarters.

Though Katrina Cottages are in abundance - the State of Mississippi is now selling off the excess units - I have to say I'm having some trouble finding a constructed GreenMobile anywhere in Mississippi. (Can somebody help me out here?)

I asked Michael Berk recently about the status of the funded GreenMobile and he said he didn't know. Seems that after consulting early on, he's out of the loop on any resulting construction. Sounding like someone talking about an estranged former lover, Berk commented about the design : "It's changed." I could hear him shaking his head over the phone.

Nevertheless, the final proposal for funding that I saw two years ago was far deeper shade of green than anything else out there. The wording in the appropriation announcement contained the disclaimer "up to" before funding amounts. It would be a shame if this progressive prototype died a premature death with money on the table.

Check out Professor/Architect Michael Berk's website for more images of the GreenMobile.

The Legacy of FEMA Trailers: Meet "Little Wierdo"

Image: still from Becky Gillette interview with Katrina survivor Jennifer Donelson

My friend Becky Gillette is a real American hero. We've all heard about the hazardous levels of formaldehyde that were found in Katrina FEMA trailers; well, you can thank Becky for bringing this explosive story to the world's attention.

Here's what happened.

Shortly after Katrina's homeless population started occupying the FEMA-supplied manufactured homes - an industry euphemism for "house trailers" - rumors started to circulate that people who lived in the trailers were getting sick. Very sick.

Scratchy eyes, sore throat, couching, nausea, vomiting - the symptoms seemed to be universal. When people inquired into the coincidental nature of all the sudden ill health, they were told, in so many words, to go back in their trailers and shut up. 'Be glad to have any home at all' was the prevailing sentiment from the federal government officials who were sent down to smooth things over.

(You can read my FEMA Trailer post from last year: Wake Up and Smell the Formaldehyde.)

One of the very few environmentalists living on the coast at the time, Becky caught wind of the situation and doggedly pursued the story through the press and, with the Sierra Club, through the courts until the federal government was forced to admit that the trailers were not fit for human habitation. They subsequently forbade any government employees from entering the trailers on "safety" grounds, and measures were taken to move people into alternative housing.

In her interview with Katrina survivor Jennifer Donelson, the consequences of living in a toxic environment are revealed. Sitting on her couch and holding her Katrina baby, she tells about the excitement of when her family first moved in to their new trailer. "It had that great brand-new smell. I thought that was good! Of course," she says sadly, "it ended up not being good."

Jennifer goes on to tell how living with formaldehyde affected her child.

"We just called him Little Wierdo. We didn't know there was something really wrong with him." Shortly after birth, she noticed that her baby was turning blue. Then he stopped breathing.

I'll spare you the rest of the details; you can watch the interview here.

For her work, Becky was awarded a 2008 Sierra Club Special Achievement award. USA Today called her "Gulf Coast's Erin Brockovich." We need more people like Becky in this world.

Micheal Berk's GreenMobile

Professor Michael Berk has some innovative ideas.

His GreenMobile concept combines sustainability, energy efficiency, affordability, and mobility for a fresh take on green housing. In one clean stroke, this Architect shatters the myth that green costs more. With prices starting at about $50,000, this green home is affordable by most of the American population.

The GreenMobile draws on modular and manufactured home technologies in to create a handsome structure that can be easily transported and set up on-site in short order. Berk’s design is perfect for emergency housing, and even more perfect for the green-conscious, budget-savvy homeowner.

Designed with solar panels and a rainwater collection system, this new breed of home is no slave to the "grid." The GreenMobile can work independently of infrastructure, or as a hybrid-house attached to local utilities. Homebuyers need not depend on the availability of utilities to dictate their choice of home sites.

And keeping the footprint small (a two-bedroom model is 890 square feet, a one-bedroom is 560 square feet) keeps costs in check; the McMansion may have been the fad in the recent past, but modern-day economics is sending too-big houses the way of the dinosaur.

GreenMobile was awarded an almost $6 million grant recently from FEMA's Alternative Housing Pilot Program (part of Congress' post-Katrina relief funding) in an effort to develop a new generation of disaster-relief housing - a good use of taxpayer money, in my opinion. A prototype is currently under development to replace some of the FEMA trailers on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Approximately 80 units are expected to be produced later on this year.

Check out the poster of the GreenMobile’s winning entry in last year’s Lifecycle Building Challenge:

http://www.lifecyclebuilding.org/files/poster-GreenMobile.pdf

And for more information on Professor Michael Berk and GreenMobile development, go to his web site:

http://www.caad.msstate.edu/mberk

Wake Up and Smell the Formaldehyde

FEMA trailers are in the news again. Turns out they're not fit for human habitation. Problem is we've known it all along.

A scathing article on Salon.com sheds light on the toxic conditions and details the efforts of the United States government to cover it up.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/01/29/fema_coverup/

Meanwhile, better than two years on, over 30,000 hurricane victims still call FEMA trailers home.

Certain carpets, plastic laminates, and adhesives out-gas formaldehyde. Put those materials in a closed container (FEMA trailers have little or no natural ventilation) and you've got the prescription for a deathtrap.

Why do we tolerate this? What kind of country are we?

For the cost of a day in Iraq, we could fund a research and development arm of FEMA hiring the best planners, architects, and industrial designers in the country to intelligently and humanely deal with the challenge of emergency housing and delivery logistics.

That's a priority I can vote for.


ps... for the local Mississippi Gulf Coast "scoop" on Katrina issues (FEMA trailers, insurance, lack of affordable housing, etc.) check out my friend Ana Maria's Bay St. Louis blog - its hot!!!

http://aminthemorning.blogspot.com/