When I first saw this post, I thought… The rebuilding will be measured in years and historic replication and restoration, should and will be on the very bottom of the list of what needs be done. Housing is the real need and a recovery in their local economy, and how can we help in that ?
Then, hours and hours after I clicked off and powered down. It suddenly occurred to me that there is no reason why we should or could not. If we only step just outside the box and a design for a house frame is come to, that is small in two ways, by western standards and also small in timber section, at least in how our collective and preconceived minds eye sees it, yet is still big enough to support simple joinery, bevel laps and daps and cogs and clasps. Say 17 X 21 with the largest timber section being maybe 6 X 7, complete with window and door wells with which to fasten traditional local, or donated enclosure materials. A home for the masses which in time can be added to
The modular nature of what we do and the very availability of the material we use and the simple tooling that can be used in the doing is how we can help.
These small precut frames could be shipped from afar and raised in hours with little or no skilled help. Donated pieces of white pine could stand with loblolly or beech or doug fir or come to stand next to English oak at first and then ultimately mix with the teaks and the other indigenous woods of the effected areas. The hundred Hundegger cut pieces could stand side by side with the smaller donations of dozens of two and three man shops, and after teams of instructors go to teach local folk to cut this same house frame again and again and help create the housing they so desperately need… Perhaps all this, with the help of band mills and other materials we can help secure the donation of.
I know this is beyond the scope of our mission, but I also know we are a united and capable group and there are many among us are prone to
fits of fancy and giving.
And nothing says we have to go it alone, we could join hands with likeminded others and together reach out -
http://www.shelter.org http://www.eeri.org home page of the link below
http://www.world-housing.net/countrylist.asp see Indonesia and others, the 2nd and 3rd worlds, desperatly need housing which will stand up to seismic activity – See also the small grants link
We have it in us, in that kernel of imagination that is what we are, and know and choose to do, to do so much more than just reach for the checkbook