The EarthPod

My name is Florian Mouafo, I am an Architect and programmer, graduated from De Montfort University in Leicester, UK, in 2018. Over the past few years I have worked as an architectural assistant at Cabinet Tognia & Associates based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, where I supervised the design of various projects ranging from small scale to master planning. Recently, following my vision I started my practice, STUDIO 127_1, to deliver a responsive architecture to better serve humanity. In our practice we focus on design optimisations and sustainability, for we believe that architecture should be the reflect of a given social and economic context. That is why we are working on improving the conditions of disadvantage communities. We believe that providing durable and descent accommodation with the participation of the people is a beginning of healing process that will trigger inspiration and creativity within those communities where life seems to have halted.

Housing crisis is a global issue today, especially, in developing countries where only a few have access to descent accommodation, energy and clean water. In crisis time the phenomenon becomes even more crucial, especially in refugee camps, where life is very precarious. These factors are responsible for slowing down economy, limiting access to education and fostering promiscuity and epidemics.

Our goal is to alleviate the problem by getting communities involve in providing affordable and sustainable dwellings for themselves, through the means of local building materials and ancestral knowledge coupled with conventional construction technologies and renewable energies. We seek to inculcate within those groups a sense self-determination by having them master our solution and further developed it.

By training poor communities around the globe to revive ancestral skills while learning new technologies, we seek to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship, thus galvanising the local economy, preparing and inspiring the next generation.

Minawoa is a town in the Far North region of Cameroon. Since 2012 it has been a refugee camp for victims of Boko Haram movement, and according UNHCR, in 2019 the camp received about 7,522 refugees, by December 31st 2019, the population was over 61,897 mostly from Nigeria. The community is made out of 62% of teenagers, where 54% are females. 

Each month the camps continues to receive about 627 people. it is subdivided into 82 blocs. In average 4 people live in a tent, hygiene rules are almost inexistent in such promiscuous conditions, thus allowing the outbreak of epidemics like Cholera and dysentery; and with the current world crisis of COVID-19 such a population has almost no chance to survive in case of infection. Besides, sanitation, food, and water supply; access to good education is also an ordeal in the community, a report from the UNHCR, reveals that only 5% of the youth have access to secondary school and less than 0.2% to university. Unemployment and juvenile delinquency is at a high rate, most of the youngsters are given up to prostitution, begging and thievery. If nothing is done urgently, this may result in an economic and sanitary disaster.

The EarthPod

Our project is inspired from a traditional clay jar "Canary" used in that region as a natural refrigerator to keep fresh, water and other substances. The jar is made out of terracotta; the spherical shape and the materiality bestow a high thermal performance. 

The EarthPod is an affordable off-grid house, naturally ventilated and insulated, capable of collecting and storing its own energy and water supply. The inside measure exactly 12.57 sqm. and can accommodate up to 4 adults within such a limited amount of space. The construction of a pod necessitate an area of 30 sqm. and pods can be arrayed in any shape to form a cluster, which can be a subdivision within the community. An arrangement like this has the advantage of increasing productivity in terms of energy and water storage and also reinforce social bound between people while observing social distancing measures.

The technology used is well-known to the people. Inspired from their ancestral craft it aims at promoting local labor and construction techniques. However, to make it more efficient solar panels and small electrical pumps are the innovations that will inspired the community and empowered them with necessary skills to develop a local economy.

The Earth–Pod is designed to serve disadvantage community around the globe. It could be displaced populations due to natural calamities or war, it may also be poor communities in any part of the world. 

Getting in touch with people coming from those areas of society, gives you the sense of being highly favoured by life. What is painful, is the fact that they live as if life was all about satisfying basics needs like animals, they have no ambition, dream and hope for the future, it is all about surviving for the next meal. We believe receiving their dignity and humanity back is a very challenging process, whereby good living condition is a first step, and having them engaged in the process will definitely stimulate entrepreneurship in them and the desire be productive to elevate their standard on living. 

This off-grid house is purposed to be an emergency shelter to meet the basic needs for of refugees so as to ensure some dignity and security. Since, Earth–Pods are built and maintained by refugees, they thus present entrepreneurial opportunities that will ultimately transform a stagnant community into a place of opportunity and growth; which may even lead to a permanent settlement.

Our project targets humanity in its core; by providing a proper environment to disfavoured people it seeks to give equal chance and opportunity to all across the globe to express their genius. This dimension we believe is meeting point of our project and the elevate prize which seeks to promote innovation and creativity in sectors for the greatest good of humanity.

Few months ago I had a conversation with one of my associates Dr Larissa Nawo, she was fascinated by IKEA's Flatpack, and has read many articles about it. She wanted to know my point of view as an architect. Basically, I found the idea very innovative and affordable for it only cost about $1000. However, the issue I had with that, was the fact that it was completely manufacture by IKEA and then delivered as a piece of furniture to be mounted on site. Although, it appeared to be the cheapest solution ever made for such context, it still remained way beyond the reality. Refugees are utterly dependant on humanitarian helps, which means no matter how cheap the product can be, it will still keep them dependant. My idea was to give them bak their autonomy and we began to work on a possible product which will include that aspect. Indeed, Dr Nawo has been working on different projects concerning refugees in Central Africa especially, and she provided valuable resources that we exploited to inspire our project. From then own we began explore the potentiality of those refugees and concluded that our product should be a "made in refugee camps".

I believe life is grace, which means that whatever condition we found ourselves in is not the result of our efforts. We might think to have total control on our lives, but this is not true, because at any time without warning a calamity can strike collectively or individually. having spent time with with those afflicted people makes you humble about whatever you take for granted, and think to have accomplished by your own power. Indeed, these are normal people like you and I who never imagine they would found themselves in such conditions. I believe they need our empathy, not our pity which most of the time dehumanises them by changing them into perpetual beggars. A Chinese proverb says: "Give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime." Although, displaced people are in urgent need of food, water and clothing, in a long-run these become ineffective. My goal is to revive their "human–ness", to elevate them at the same standing with "myself", i.e. helping them to recover their autonomy by providing the necessary tools to their self-determination.

As a young architect and programmer, graduated from the Montfort University in Leicester, UK. I have had 5 years of work experience in the field of architecture, where I have contributed to deliver durable accommodations to disadvantage people in Cameroon with very limited resources; I have conducted many investigations with local building materials and the benefit thereof, in terms of sustainability and affordability and now my intend is to extend my action at a national and international scale.

My team is made of young dynamic and competent people like: 

Dr Larissa Nawo, co-founder of STUDIO 127_1. She is a specialist in renewable energy and an economist with 5 years of work experience. She is a visiting fellow at Cornell University, working on impact of violent conflicts on child health in Far North region of Cameroon, Minewao camp ; a major place of refugees in Africa. These last years she have extensively traveled around Africa, which makes her well aware of unemployment rate, inaccessibility to clean energy and sustainable housing. Currently, she is a lecturer of Public Economy at University of Dschang Cameroon.

 Fabrice Wamba Fofe, a civil engineer, with 5 years of work experiences. Working with companies like Chinese construction Shanxi group and ZTE in several projects, where he has gained many skills. 

My team I believe is well-positioned to deliver the EarthPod. Despite, the vast challenges we are confronted to in Africa, we will turn them into advantages.

From the start of our project my team was not familiar with the software we are using for design, I asked them to watch tutorials on youtube, but I realised that, they were not motivated, and that was affecting productivity. At first I got mad at them and quickly lost patience, thinking they were just incompetent and lazy, but later on I realised that, they needed motivation from me. They wanted me to be involved in the process since I was the one imposing it on them, and not guiding them through gave the sense that I was asking them to do something that I was not capable of doing or perhaps I was simply looking for an alibi to get rid of them. 

I had to apologise for such attitude, I understood that as a leader you must teach by action, thus we actually, started a workshop to train them myself into using the software and the template our team was going to work with, and that was very salutary for us all. Beside, it reinforced bounds between us and a sense of equality, humility and respect and since then productivity has increase significantly.

In 2018, in my final year of Master, The faculty organised a design competition for the 3rd year Bachelor. They selected 5 of us in Master, to mentor the different teams. The theme was "The threshold", and they had to produce a physical model in 8h to express it.

There were 5 teams, made of 15 students. When we started, I gave two minutes to each of my students to give his point of view on the subject; I knew the team needed to have a project leader but I could not just designate him. Most of them were timid, but they were two students a girl and a boy who were very dynamic and relevant. However, both seemed not to agree on the concept, thus I let them argued for an hour, while other team in the studio were busy drafting. people began to laugh at us thinking we were never going to move on. Thereafter, I stoped the debate and designated the girl as the team leader and the boy as the model making supervisor, an immediately team began to work for the next 3h hours, and we won the completion, everyone was staring at me with amazement.

Many of the emergency shelters currently used have a life span of as little as six months before the impact of sun, rain and wind and then they must be replaced. However, refugees usually stay in camps for several years in precarious situations.

IKEA, has recently develop a prototype of shelter "Flatpack"; a rectangular foldable tent of 17.5 square meters, of a maximum capacity of 5 people. The Flatpack is made out reusable materials; lightweight steel and fabric, powered by solar panels. 

Although the solution is very revolutionary, the flatpack cost round $1000, which is unaffordable for the targeted people. Beside, their implication in the design process is quite insignificant and the probability for them to benefit from such technology to develop a local economy is very uncertain, because of the manufacturing process.

Our solution in contrast, in more to be cheaper around $800 takes into account the refugees' potentialities  i.e. their background knowledge. Their contributions are considered from inception to completion and the technology is utterly put at their disposal for further development. The aim is to trigger a local economy around the construction industry and associated technologies, so as to generate revenue and entrepreneurial opportunities. The innovation we putting forth in more to be technological, encompasses dignity and autonomy. we are envisioning an autonomous refugee camp, with people running their own businesses and employing people from within and without. It is about giving them hope for a better future and stop feeling themselves as parasite of the society.  

A Chinese proverb says: "Give a poor man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him to fish and you give him an occupation that will feed him for a lifetime." Although, displaced people are in urgent need of food, water and clothing, in a long-run these become ineffective. However, most of the time people are only concern about feeding or sheltering them for a day, this is why we have NGO around the globe raising fund to solve same issues in places for years without any remarkable improvement, because people receiving those humanitarian helps are not being helped by these. Indeed, it does more harm than good, since it dehumanises and reduce them to beasts. 

When the Boko Haram movement just started in early 2014, the Cameroon Government launched a national relief campaign for the victims, people were so eager to contribute in food, money, clothing, etc. And the national media reported on the success of the initiative. Nevertheless, this was deceptive, for the helps did not aim at giving a certain autonomy, and before the year was out, the campaign ceased; although, the refugees' number kept increasing, and it is now ten times more than what it was. Nowadays, their conditions have deteriorated and become more deplorable. The refugees are abandoned to their fate, and the entire region of MINAWAO, according to a recent report of UNHCR is declared a state of severe famine and epidemics.  

A good help should have a long lasting effect, and the people being help should be involved in the process, their contributions are crucial and determine the impact the overall process. We believe that, the most effective way to help refugees and displaced people is by letting them know that their are part of the solution, and stop victimise themselves, for what has happened to them can happen to any of us. They should be able to help us back if ever the wind changes direction, that is why we would have them get started new life and be ambitious and considered their situations as an opportunity to improve.

For now the solution aims at improving the life of displaced population in the camp of Minawoa, a town in the Far North region of Cameroon. The actual population in the camp by December 31st 2019, is estimated to over 61,897. Initially 2,000 Earth–Pods to fit 8,000 people are to be built, these will serve as archetypes to provide housing for the rest of refugees, which are to receive helps and necessary training to build their own individual shelters and later put their skill at contribution to build public facilities. According to our estimation if resources are available, within a year of intense labor over 10,000 Earth–Pods for 40,000 people can be implemented. 

From then on, we expect the solution to be improved by local and foreign technological achievements, then exported to other refugees camp around the continent. Depending on regions, this may imply a mass production and advanced manufacturing processes and synthetic materials having the same performance of initial ones. The aim is to locally pre-fabricate the pods to rapidly meet with the demand.

Over a period of 5 years the solution must have been diversified and reconfigured to a point of serving millions of people across the globe and inspire mass housing and urban settlement. We expect our solution to initiate a new generation of permanent settlement, which even after some of the refugees would have left they will continue serve some other purpose and people, or even become part of the urban fabric in developed country especially.

Our implication in this project was sparked by the refugees' conditions in Minawoa, therefore, our aim within the next year is to provide a durable shelter for all people living there. Indeed, we intend to stimulate innovation in them so as to see emerging a new generation of entrepreneur amongst them, although, this may not be done within a year we at least expecting to see an interest for learning this solution, and the number of voluntary workers we will have by then will give us a good appreciation of the impact of our action. Initially, apparatus for solar energy and electrical pumps will be exported, but we intend to have them coming from abroad only for the first 2,000 Earth–Pods, then later on at some point during the year we expect to open schools, workshops and factories to start a local production that will supply the rest of constructions for the camp.

Within five years time, we are expecting to see many refugees camp gain their autonomy, and even become permanent settlements or part of the existing urban fabric. Thus allowing the improvement of our solution and its adaptation into other types of facilitates, in public and private sector. We would like to see many underdeveloped regions in Africa become economically independent thanks to our solution that relies on green energy and local construction materials to promote our history, art and culture; besides allowing a possibility to be improved for mass production and better performance within the building industry.

For the moment, the obstacles we are facing are financial, technical and sanitary.

Indeed, it will necessitate over $1.8 million to build the initial 2,000 Earth–Pods; this is just a rough estimation and does not take into account transportation fee and equipments. 

Besides, the means of access to the site are very limited, the roads are impractical during rainy seasons and this might delay the process if not properly manage. 

Health issues also constitute a constant threat, especially for foreign specialists, who will have to settle there for short or long period of time for training purposes. Epidemics like Cholera, dysentery are rife in the region and many have died, and the current world pandemics of COVID-19 is not making things easier, since hygiene conditions in the region are very favourable to the spread of the disease.

If those aforementioned obstacles are not addressed immediately, within the next five years, our project would have turn into a disaster, with many people resigning or simply losing their lives due to health issues, traffic incidents or depression. We might even find ourselves in lawsuit with huge debts and unpaid salaries.

The first obstacle to overcome is finance, our goal is to launch national and International fund raising campaigns, look for sponsors and prizes. We intend to launch a massive campaign on social media and use crowdfunding platforms like gofundme, while looking for potential partners like UNHCR to back up our actions.

For road traffic in the region, we will manage to have all the materials delivered on site before the routes become impractical, as we wait for the gouvernent to encourage our initiative by fixing these roads so as to make them practicable all through the year. 

For sanitation issues, we intend to sanitise the all region. Our primary support will come from the ministry of public health, in addition we are looking support from the Cameroon red Cross and Doctors Without Borders, to open hospitals and pharmacies.

None

From the moment of arrival, refugees compete with the local citizens for scarce resources such as land, water, housing, food and medical services. Over time, their presence leads to more substantial demands on natural resources, education and health facilities, energy, transportation, social services, accommodation and employment. Our business model is inspired form circular business models which provides adequate off-grid housing using solar energy and integrating refugees young, men and women in the subtainable house building process. Our solution will help to improve the learning by doing skills of young men and adults living in refuges’ camps both for the modern building techniques based on earth bricks and training on solar energy installation and maintenance and even trainings in  new technologies. The picture below present an overview of our social business model canvas.

- Crowdfunding's  from national and international levels

- Multi-Development Banks grants 

-Donations 

-Government Grants  and NGO grants

-Raising investment capital from Sovereign  wealth funds and others institutional investors and private global financial sector

We  have not yet raised funds for our solution neither nor generation revenue.

We are seeking over $1.8 million  to build the initial 2,000 Earth–Pods. For this purpose we are more interested three by types of funding sources from: grant, equity  and crowd-fundings. We hope to raise the money by the end of this year. Our estimation show that for each earth pod it cost around  US $ 800. 

• Fixed Costs/Overhead

Our  fixed costs mainly take in account: Rent, Utility bills , Phone bills/communication costs , Accounting/bookkeeping , Legal/insurance/licensing fees, Postage, Technology, Advertising & marketing, Salaries:  The major part of the fixed costs  are shared between by : advertising and marketing costs and legal, insurance and licensing fees For the year 2020 we will need  $ 80.000 for fixed costs.

• For Variable Costs

Here the Variable Costs  integrate : Cost of Goods Sold (Materials and supplies and Packaging); Direct Labor Costs (Customer service, Direct sales, Direct marketing). For the variables course we make a prevision of around $ 20.000.

Refugees are coming from torn war countries and calamities with their hands in the air seeking someone to lift them up. Refugees cry for help, because most of them are innocent people who are tired of the vicious cycles.

Looking outside of the box, one cannot afford to feel sympathy for poor refugees and immigrants who are in need of peace and serenity. Housing challenge,  water , clean  energy access and need to become self resilient ( through gobs jobs or entrepreneurships activities)  is among the main issue for refugees and source of social unrest with the host communities due to resource scarcity.

Somewhere safe to stay is the inner motivation in many wounded hearts. If we want to express our love to our beloved brothers and sisters, we must ask ourselves, what can we do to help and not worry about how, because the how will show itself. That is the reason why we apply for the Elevate Prize.

We are looking  ways to make EarthPod more visible , while improving the revenue model and legal matters. But one of the main challenge is the funding sources. So we are also searching others funds sources  which can help us to develop a subtainable ecosystem to refugees, managing by themselves and transferable to their next generation  an effective way to break the chain of transgenerational  poverty .

We would appreciate to partner with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR),  the World Bank Group (WBG) and any others organizations who can  give their   help  to this project which aim to make refugees self resilient in he long run and generators of more opportunities for themselves through the EarthPod solution.