Client: Livity

Location: St. Lucia, Caribbean

Status: Complete

overview

St Lucia, in the Caribbean, requires a low-cost housing system to meet the needs of the under-provided social housing market. These designed, prefabricated kit houses are all container delivered, fully finished, in component form direct from a specialist Chinese constructor. A bar code reader, to access the instructions for assembly of each component, plus a selection of small hand powered tools is all that is required for unskilled labour to assemble the entire house. Screw piles for the foundations are driven into the ground with a hand torque wrench.

The aesthetic of both the houses and apartments is derived from a combination of local idioms and vernaculars combined with contemporary materials, components and construction arrangements which quickly erected, environmentally responsible, low maintenance and affordable; $100,000.00 for a four bedroom house including land.

The particular climatic and seismic conditions of the island have been addressed in the substructure, superstructure and passive environmental controls, with particular care being taken to avoid unnecessary soil erosion, flooding, insect damage, hurricane damage and habitat loss.