high demand for AFFORDABLE housing

Affordable housing is in high demand in the city of New Orleans. People want to re-build homes quickly, while affordable, so they can return to their everyday lives. But the post-Katrina situation is looking grim. Thankfully, help is coming from all regions of the United States. The University of Virginia teamed up with Habitat for Humanity on the preHAB project.



A total of 18 students from the School of Architecture and the School of Engineering and Applied Science collaborated on the prefabricated home design. They were also able to work with the house hands-on when it was constructed in Gautier, Mississippi. The design was sensitive to solar technology, multi-use spaces, natural lighting, hurricane studies, and materials. The students built the "environmentally responsive panelized house kit" in Mississippi, where it was tested. The home is one of seven preHAB houses to be assembled in communities in New Orleans.