A driven Ontario teen is determined to end homelessness in his city, and has designed a modular tiny home system to tackle the problem.
Ribal Zebian is only 18, but he’s wasted no time in finding his purpose. At 17, his passion for engineering had seen him build a child-scale model of a Mercedes G-class out of wood and electrics and donate it to a museum.
Now he’s working on something a little more practical: precision fiberglass molding that can create small, insulated shelters to support London Ontario’s 1,800 homeless residents.
Zebian isn’t only focused on the present, “I’m concerned about the people in the future that will end up facing that problem, right, because house prices are increasing and increasing and increasing,” he told CTV News.
The fiberglass panels, molded with utility cavities, can be quickly duplicated to form modular structures of larger or smaller area. The ceiling uses insulated cores of PET plastic that support the roof structure and should resist all weather all year.
Beginning in May, Zebian, who attends Western University, will attempt to live in the modular home for 12 months.
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Like this, he told CTV, he can see every defect and flaw, and experience the shelter in every kind of climate to understand exactly how it can be perfected. He thoroughly believes it can be mass produced and utilized to help alleviate homelessness.
“Are tiny homes the entire answer? No, but it’s a part of the solution,” said London affordable housing advocate Gary Brown, again to CTV. “I’ve seen quite a few going up in other cities, and it’s something London itself is kind of lagging behind a little bit.”
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