A vision for modular housing has made a huge impact at the recent STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Spotlight Awards in Vancouver, Canada.
According to the Vancouver Sun, British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) civil engineering student Stephen Cohos won the $20,000 grand prize during the inaugural edition of the awards event for his vision of sustainable modular housing.
“My main interest is in modular building systems, but we can also make buildings that sequester carbon from the atmosphere rather than create it in the production of cement,” said Cohos.
Cohos presented the Amoeba Building System to judges, which is a modular building system that can be used to create large multi-unit residential buildings composed almost entirely from wood, with the goal of solving the Vancouver area-housing crisis.
Cohos says that the individual living units are called “Unit Cells” which can be assembled on site from prefabricated wall and floor panels, and then stacked like Lego bricks to match the shape and topography of a building site.
“It really speeds up the time needed for construction,” said Cohos.
“Right now I am designing an eight-story building, but we are hoping to go up to 15 or 20 floors.”
The STEM Spotlight Awards is a first-of-its-kind competition in Canada, challenging individuals aged 18 to 28 to present solutions to real-world problems in five major sectors of the British Columbia economy using STEM skills (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
The MH Industry and STEM
As Daily Business News readers are aware, Clayton Homes has established the Clayton-Bradley Academy, a STEM school located on the grounds of Clayton’s Maryville, Tennessee headquarters, with the goal of preparing students for college, as well as being a community resource and part of a bigger conversation about education.
With rapid expansion since its July 2013 opening, Executive Director Patricia Bradley believes that the school is uniquely positioned to help students and businesses alike.
“Business partnerships are critical. The business community is telling us that students aren’t career-ready, and our goal is to produce students who are ready to go to college and universities and be prepared for the work force. We want to make the transition as smooth as possible,” said Bradley.
Clayton Homes is a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK/A), and is the largest producer of manufactured homes (MH) in North America. Vertically integrated, the company has several hundred retail centers nationwide. Through its affiliates and family of brands, Clayton builds, sells, finances, leases and insures Clayton-built manufactured and modular homes. The operation also buys products and uses services from other producers.
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(Image credits are as shown above.)
Submitted by RC Williams to the Daily Business News for MHProNews.
