Thursday, September 21, 2006

A Solution to Miami Public Housing Crisis: "Logical Homes"



California architect Peter DeMaria whom MVB championed in the August posting "Public Housing Answer..." because we believe his recycled shipping containers would make a quick and affordable solution to our current public housing crisis, is launching a new company called Logical Homes. The first thing you'll notice about these affordable "pre-fab" homes (top picture) is that the shipping containers have been incorporated into more conventional designs, completely concealing them from view.

"Similar to the lack of affordable home situation in Miami," Mr. DeMaria says in an email to MVB, "the same exists here in LA. We have been fortunate to be working with a member of the City of LA and his contacts within the Mayor's office to create affordable and high quality homes. One of our biggest goals is to make the dream of home ownership a reality for many people."

He goes on to state that the "affordability index" in LA "floats around the 15% level. What that means is, only 15% of the people in LA can afford to purchase a home here! What are the other 85% going to do is the question we are hoping to answer with our new company. We've got single family and multifamily projects that are designed and permitted."

He adds, "I also attached a photo of the construction progress of a more contemporary home here in Redondo Beach (second picture). I may eventually send you some shots of the mixed use/mult-family project in Venice/LA; we broke ground on it yesterday. It all sounds much easier than it is when it comes to getting over the hurdles in place here in LA (like Miami) but none the less, we're committed to doing some great things for many people.

"Our Florida office move will take place sometime after our company launch in late October.

"Your concern for your fellow citizens and Miami is admirable, keep it up! Stay in touch and keep us abreast of any news and thanks again for the article.

Peter DeMaria
Architect"

MVB is excited about DeMaria's innovative ideas and his concern for creating affordable homes. We thank him for his personal response and can only add, "Get thee here ASAP!"

You can see a short video on the construction of one of these homes here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good read....Its an intresting concept and i don't think this should be use for affordable housing only,it looks like a perfectly normal house. Only one other concern would remain, on what land to put it?

Verticus Erectus said...

If the units the county already closed can't be brought up to code, I'd tear them down and put these up in their place. There are blocks after blocks of these boarded up buildings the county says aren't fit to live in. So, it's not like you have to buy land to build affordable/public housing. The utilities are already in and it is just a matter of hooking the new structures up to water, sewer, electric, and maybe gas.