Culver City, CA – April 27, 2016 – Ms. Fanyu Lin, CEO of FLUXUS, LLC attended XPRIZE Foundation‘s Visioneering meeting for Refugee Housing Innovation, where the foundation convenes a group of thought leaders and incorporate critical input, advice, and insights into the prize design.
XPRIZE Foundation’s mission is to bring about “radical breakthroughs for the benefit of humanity”. Their Board of Trustees include Elon Musk, Larry Page, Arianna Huffington, James Cameron, Ratan Tata among others. XPRIZE pioneers an impactful model to bring about technology breakthrough while attract investment to create markets in order to scale solutions for tackling some of the most pressing global issues.
At this time, the XPRIZE is focusing on creating humanitarian housing prize:
INNOVATIVE HOUSINGPrize development funded by Corigin.Grand ChallengeFor the first time since World War II, the number of refugees, asylum-seekers, and internally-displaced persons around the globe has exceeded 50 million individuals. This total has climbed in recent years due to conflict and persecution, and includes more internally-displaced people (IDPs)—8.2 million as of 2013— than at any time in recorded history. A second sobering challenge is that refugee camps that were intended to be temporary have become permanent refugee settlements where the average length of stay is 17 years. The housing and services provided, while vital, do not fully meet the needs of their residents. These basic needs include: safety, clean water, electricity, heating or cooling, and sanitation. While we have seen innovation in this space, including flat-pack shelters and those that integrate native heating and cooling, there is a significant need for housing that integrates innovations from various sectors, including security, energy, water, and sanitation. There is also a significant need for locally produced solutions that integrate local materials and labor.
XPRIZE Innovative Housing
Photo © UNHCR
FLUXUS LLC has developed the Fluxus System as a sustainable and scalable solution to the increasing global needs of humanitarian housing, which can provide refugees and asylum seekers in post-conflict and post-disaster situations with an efficient way to build both quality homes and communities, something that current systems lack.
Other attendees include experts from Airbnb, Center for Gender and Refugee Studies-UC Hastings, BMW Designworks, Living Homes, Helical Holdings, Reaction Housing, USC School of Architecture, Office of Mobile Design, UC Berkeley Environmental Design, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design-CityLAB, Reaction Housing, Ehrlich Architects, John Friedman Alice Kimm Architects, Mia Lehrer Landscape Architects.
Two potential prize concepts are being developed to address these challenges. In the first, the winning team will develop an off-grid housing solution for vulnerable populations that integrates security, energy, water, and sanitation that can be assembled in less than TBD hours for less than TBD dollars per unit. The winning solution will also optimize on volume, weight, ease-of-transport, and durability. In addition to expert judges, families who live in the units will participate in judging the prize. In the second concept, the winning team will develop the most efficient and effective “factory in the box” for creating shelters with locally-available materials and labor.
XPRIZE Innovative Housing
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