SisalHouse

The Step Beyond ShelterBox . . .SISAL HOUSE

The Rotary Club of Dexter and the Dexter High School Interactors are undertaking an exciting new housing technology program. Sisal House provides structurally sound, environmentally friendly, easy to manufacture, and easy to assemble, housing units and components for use as temporary or permanent housing in developing countries and/or in response to housing crises caused by natural disasters. Sisal House products are manufactured from sustainable, indigenous fiber crops that are easily grown and harvested with minimal energy cost, and are carbon‐consuming. Sisal House products will be manufactured on location using low technology. The technologies are as simple as manual presses and locally produced resin products. Sisal House technology has been tested, and is now ready to be prototyped and further developed for widespread adoption.

Sisal House complements the Rotary International ShelterBox Program and provides the logical extension of providing low cost, locally produced, interim and/or permanent housing for both disaster recovery events and for developing economies. Analogous to ShelterBox, Sisal House will be delivered as a “Sisal House Factory Box,” ready for implementation by indigenous personnel.

The Sisal House project is a planned multi‐phase, multi‐year project managed through the Rotary Club of Dexter Foundation. The first phase of the project will be a prototype playhouse made from Sisal panels, designed and executed by the Dexter High School Interact Club with oversight provided by Rotary Club of Dexter members with appropriate technical skills and international development experience. As the project progresses, alliances with other domestic Interact clubs, other domestic Rotary clubs, and appropriate international clubs will be developed. The project was conceived by Juan Ramos, a member of past president Larry Courson’s congregation. More about Sisal House can be found at http://sisalhouse.incipi.com

Source: http://www.rotary6380.org