Atrocious New Housing for New Orleans
15 February 2006

Hurricane Katrina victims have much want still several months after the devastation.

The good news is that the reality of new, cheap, pre-fab, storm resistant housing is being developed as you read. The bad news is, people may have even more to want after they see how the drastically their lifestyle is expected to change.

Homes like the Eco-Cottage, Cusato Cottages, and the Colardo House are neat little pre-fabricated packages that will provide quick housing solutions for the homeless. These houses range in size from 200 square foot studios to 1200 square foot three bedroom homes. Most use a vernacular familiar to New Orleans, but cheapened and dumbed down. It seems most of the effort went into making these all-metal homes look like they’re made of wood. The assumption is that the disinherited hurricane victims are desperate to live anywhere, even 200 square feet is a gift.

This assumption is atrocious. These people have little to no personal possessions, but that doesn’t mean they’ll never replace them! At the New Urban Home, we are all about simplifying and compacting your footprint on this planet. We are not, however, pleased by this example as it is A.) forced and B.) extreme. These houses seem comfortable cozy for one or maybe two efficiency loving people. These are not homes where one could comfortably raise a child, have a guest over, or lead a life similar to the one they knew before. How insulting it is that after all the horror these people have been through, their government is once again devaluing their human lives by packing them into prison-like barracks. How arrogant to even emphasize the durability of these structures, when these poor dispossessed people would doubtfully want to live here at all, nevermind permanently.

What happened to R. Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion House? An all metal house, without the pretense to pretend otherwise, and indeed an attractive structure. The Dymaxion House could be built in a couple of days by its future inhabitants and a few neighbors, it weighed about as much as a car, and allocated space so efficiently that its minimalist size had maximum functionality. Why aren’t the architects working on the Katrina housing project thinking this way? Why not design a house that expresses its materials, technology, and epoch instead of hiding behind an outdated vernacular? Why not design a house that celebrates the rebuilding of New Orleans in modern times, or a house that evokes a memorial of this disaster? The revival of New Orleans is an opportunity for architects to be innovative and expressive—an elegant solution to this problem exists, and we are obviously looking to the wrong people to find it.

I watched the Dave Chappelle “Inside the Actor’s Studio” interview. Chappelle remarked, “America is the best country by default.” Truly, we enjoy a lifestyle to be thankful for. But I guess this means that we don’t have to try anymore. It seems being on top for so long has decreased our motivation to strive for a more ideal society. This housing solution is only a solution by default; there are no other options for New Orleans.