How to Build a $1000 Home
We set out on a mission to design and scale a home for under a thousand dollars for the people across rural Rwanda.
The house would be…
0% concrete
100% diaster resistent
made of local materials
built by locals
create jobs
bring better health to homes in these communities
security to families
identify the problem
After interviewing families, we developed a series of appropriate solutions to common problems they had in their home, such as ways to bring light into the house without compensating security, or keeping their crops safe from rats. We called these amenities in our design.
2. develop design options
Access the full cost analysis
What was the most expensive part?
The foundation. For least expensive house the foundation was 30% of it's total cost, when using a rubble stone foundation. We did not calculate using a rammed earth foundation.
We were not able to reach our target price, however, the project has been passed on to the Rwandan Government, along with MASS Design Group to develop an adobe or "rukarkara" building standard.
