pop'n'fresh lofts?

How do they connect the plumbing for the toilets and sinks?

So the earthquake hits and we all roll around like 20 sided dice?

its funny how they were designed in new york for a "possible" hurricane and all new Orleans got was.......wait......no one really did anything to help thats right.....

@zeppelined: Don't worry about that. After the quake, water supplies will be shut off so you won't need a toilet anyway.

Habitrails! Do we get giant "Liberty Balls", too?

@Annalee Newitz: Hm. I wonder how they handled that stuff (you could take that phrase literally, I guess) 100 years ago. I doubt the shacks had potties.

Anyway, module temp shelters are a cool idea. I have a buddy who runs a "post-disaster" equipment company, selling decon bubbles, hazmat suits and the like. Wonder if they'd be interested in these.

@92BuickLeSabre: The roll will determine how fast help arrives.

And to think their are people who didn't like the way Greg Bear called his archologies "The Combs." The idea of humans living in hexagonal cells seems very hive-like and Borgistic in nature. If made from super-strong synthetics, wouldn't shelters be ideal for people living on an island, that might not be there when water levels rise? Can you see thousands of these things all duct-tapped together, along with boats and perhaps one de-commed aircraft carrier? Oh, the future is not far away.

Seems I recall something like this being offered to some folks in South America after a big storm or earthquake. The presidente turned them down as he didn't want his people living in cardboard domes. Better they live in shacks or out in the open, I guess.

I think the real problem would be, how do you get folks to move out of them and into "real homes"? That cost real money and make real estate people rich?

I'd live in one of these now, disaster or no.

@tetracycloide: LOL

Given the state of most of GG Park, I think I'd try and make do with the rubble that was my apartment...

If its for earthquakes, why doesn't he concept art have smoke blakened skies and occupants wearing head bandages and arm casts? Just sayin'.

i hate the idea of temporary buildings. the systemic flaw in the design of all temporary buildings is that they all assume that the building will only be occupied over a specific period of time and use that to justify cutting corners on things. in reality nothing will ever get replaced simply because the expiration date has passed when it could continue being used for less than it costs to bulid something real.

If these buildings were used after a disaster, I think they would probably wind up becoming permanent housing. That's what happened with the shacks. People just relocated them to unfinished streets in the Sunset and Richmond and kept living in them.

@Annalee Newitz: ...and before long we wouldn't be able to afford those either!

@Frozen-Tex: New Orleans = The City that 20 Forgot?

buckminster fuller would be proud.-blurey

You know those oddly shaped bowls you buy 25 cent candy from in the corner store? Yea, these are those bowls bigger brother...

See also 72hours.org's PDF version of the entire site (cool feature):

[72hours.org]

It's almost like they don't expect FEMA to come to the aid of a predominantly non-conservative area...

These look pretty neat - and very futuristic. I don't know if the shape of the is really conducive to living in them, or is just style, but I guess that's why I'm not an architect.

I read something similar about intermodal freight cars being used as housing - that looks like a better option, as they're already the right size for transportation, the system is already built to handle them, and there are lots of extra ones floating around just waiting to become converted.

@noncornbatant: It's almost like FEMA is famous for not coming to the aid of any areas . . .

@zeppelined:
What you do, is dig a hole in the ground and use that. This was 1906, a lot of people only had outhouses anyway.
-Kle.

They could also double as internment housing, once all the former middle class are finally out of work and liable for permanent detainment as undesirables.

Thanks for the link to the Western Neighborhoods Project, we appreciate it. For the sake of accuracy though, I have to say that there weren't any of the small earthquake relief cottages built in Golden Gate Park after the 1906 quake. The relief camps were built throughout the city in the neighborhood parks.

Alas, if only we could have another devastating quake so I could live in Dolores Park...