Home prices in many of the world’s most famous cities run to well over $1,000 per square foot. By contrast, MIT architects have produced the first prototype from the Institute’s “1K House” project, an effort to see if low-cost homes for the poor can be constructed for $1,000, total.
The project’s debut effort, called the Pinwheel House, was constructed in Sichuan Province, China, at the epicenter of the 2008 earthquake.
Designer Ying chee Chui, a graduate of MIT’s Department of Architecture, created the housing especially for areas prone to natural disasters. Chui incorporated hollow brick walls with steel bars for reinforcement and wooden box beams to withstand earthquakes up to 8.0 in magnitude. The home turned out bigger and more costly, but at $5,925, it is still very inexpensive in relative terms.
