Arial Home Overview

Problem Identification  

More than 1 billion human beings live in sub-standard, unhealthy conditions.  Unfortunately, most government and charitable organizations are addressing the housing crisis with short term solutions that are unlikely to catch up with population growth.  Traditional methods for building houses are inadequate to deal with the scale of the crisis.

The Arial Home Initiative provides a new way of addressing the problem of inadequate housing for poor families around the world.  Most charitable organizations have concluded that the best way to use limited funds is to build the cheapest homes possible so that the maximum number of homes can be built with the amount of funds available.

The Arial Home Initiative hopes to set an example of long term, life cycle thinking by building homes may not have the lowest initial cost, but will have “the lowest cost per occupant per year.”  The housing crisis is unlikely to be resolved if charitable organizations and government agencies continue to build what are often called “better shacks.”  

Instead of building tiny homes with no insulation, no running water, no sanitary or electrical systems, The Arial Home Initiative builds larger, all-steel homes with excellent insulation, running water, a sanitary waste system, and a solar powered electrical system.  Based on experience with steel homes built in the 1950's (Lustron Homes), Arial Homes  are projected to have useful lives of 50 years or more due to their galvanized steel construction.  This compares to an average 15 year life for lower quality, wood or mud brick homes currently being built.  

With usable floor space of 383 square feet (36 square meters), an Arial Home is also significantly larger than most poverty level houses which typically range from 120 to 280 square feet.  This means that more of the extended family will live in the home.  It costs much less to house 8 people in one larger home than in two smaller homes, each housing just four people.  A larger, higher quality home will also be able to qualify for a mortgage, and that is a primary objective of The Arial Home Initiative.  

 Arial Homes are made from modular, metal insulated steel panels which fit together like LEGO’s.  Each panel consists of a two inch thick “sandwich” of pre-painted, rust resistant, 24 gauge steel on the outside, fiberglass on the inside, filled with polyurethane foam.  Wall panels weigh an average of 64 pounds.  Roof panels, which have steel sheets on both sides, weigh an average of 100 pounds.  Panels can be handled by two people with no lifting equipment.  Below is a typical Arial Home with solar panels on the roof.  

A team of eight experienced workers can erect an Arial Home structure in less than four hours.They can completely finish the plumbing, sanitary system and electrical system by the end of the day.  Families with a few of their friends and neighbors can erect their own Arial Home in two days.  This can be done with the help of an experienced Arial Home mentor to guide them and the loan of the battery powered screw guns that are used to secure the panels to each other and the concrete floor.  

Description of Technology  

The key to the success of The Arial Home Initiative has been the development of an inexpensive, efficient micro-manufacturing plant to make modular home panels from sheet steel, fiberglass and polyurethane.  Local workers are hired and taught how to use the specialized manufacturing equipment which is mostly manually operated, requiring no electricity.

In full production, each plant will be capable of producing enough panels for one Arial Home per work shift per day (40 panels). This production rate will require 6 employees working an 8 hour shift.  With the single shift, an Arial Home factory could potentially produce components for 250 homes per year.   By adding a second shift, each Arial Home factory will eventually produce 500 homes per year.  

Due to the use of custom machines to make the metal insulated panels, the cost of the capital equipment for the factory can be kept under $100,000.   Below is the fixture used to foam the metal pans into panels.  

The model for The Arial Home Initiative is not the construction industry – it is the automotive industry. Toyota can produce a brand new car in its Kentucky plant every 27 seconds. Each of those cars is more complex and more costly than an Arial Home.  

A new home could be built somewhere in the world every 27 seconds through the establishment of micro-manufacturing plants in the world’s poorest regions.  

The goal of The Arial Home Initiative is not simply to build better homes for the poor but to create a viable, new approach towards alleviating the world’s housing crisis.  Mass production, volume purchasing, standardized designs, modular components, continuous process improvement are auto industry techniques which could be applied to low income home construction.   

 Factory Breakthrough  

For the Arial Home Initiative the breakthrough is not so much in the creation of new technology as it is in the creative application of existing technologies to help solve a world-wide crisis.  The main manufacturing system in an Arial Home factory is a custom built fixture that injects liquid polyurethane into a metal and fiberglass “pan” to turn it into a strong, highly insulated panel.  Below is a photo of the polyurethane foam rising from the pan as it cures in the Arial Home factory in Ensenada, Mexico.

Other technologies employed include custom designed machines for bending flat sheet metal into the structural shapes (U’s, T’s and L’s) to anchor the panels together.  Photovoltaic solar panels on the roof charge batteries during the day to light compact florescent bulbs at night and to power the home’s water pump.  

The Arial Home team has created an affordable, micro-manufacturing plant that can be operated by unskilled, local workers. The manufacturing process, although highly sophisticated, has been simplified to the point where a worker with no experience in metal working or machine operation, can be producing Arial Home components within a few days using manually powered equipment.The factories can be supported remotely from Arial Home’s headquarters in Jupiter, FL via high speed Internet links (uplink satellite connections) and web cams.  

A commercial factory making metal insulated panels typically requires $16 million in capital equipment and the plant employs highly skilled workers. An Arial Home factory requires less than $100,000 in capital equipment and can be operated by unskilled workers.  

 Effectiveness of the Design  

The best way to gauge the effectiveness of the Arial Home Initiative is from interviews with families who have been living in them in Ensenada, Mexico. Some of the comments include:

“For the first time, my home is warm in the winter and cool in the summer.”  

“When it gets very cold at night, our neighbors come over and sleep in our house because it stays warm.”  

“We are the only house in the neighborhood that has lights at night thanks to the solar power system on the roof.”  

The “before” and “after” photographs tell the story of the project’s impact:  

Above is baby Julio who was very sick with a respiratory infection in July, 2007. Below is Julio in Jane Pirelli’s arms, healthy and happy at an Arial Home family reunion on Thanksgiving Day, 2007.  

 Measurable Results  

Results are measured by the number of Arial Homes that have been built, by the quality improvements made from each Version to the next, by the ongoing manufacturing improvements that result in lower costs for each home, and by the comments from the families after they have lived in a home for several months.  

Since we constructed the first Arial Home in Ensenada on December 17, 2006, there have been five, major Version improvements, an Arial Home factory was established in Ensenada, Mexico in June, 2007, six employees were hired and trained, and 24 Arial Homes have been built for Ensenada families.  More than 100 Arial Homes will be built in Ensenada in 2009. 

The major microfinance organization Opportunity International (www.opportunity.org), is working with The Arial Home Initiative to set up micro-mortgage funds to enable the working poor to buy their own Arial Homes. Opportunity will also be looking at using Arial Home modular panels to construct their branch banking offices in various countries around the world, and in their schools program to build classrooms.

Our initial charity partner is Youth With A Mission San Diego (YWAM). YWAM picks the families who will receive the Arial Homes and YWAM also supervises the day-to-day activities of the six employees in the Ensenada factory.  

Important Considerations  

Up to this point in time, the cost of an Arial Home has been donated by a charitable foundation, a church group or a wealthy individual and the homes are provided for free to some of the neediest residents of Ensenada and Tijuana, Mexico, as determined by local YWAM missionaries.  

Giving away homes for free is not a sustainable model. The challenge is to create micro-mortgage funds along the same lines as the highly successful microfinance funds so that the working poor can buy their own homes. A typical family’s income in Ensenada, Mexico is $100 - $200 per week ($450 - $900 per month) depending on whether both parents work.  Micro-mortgages for Arial Homes in Mexico can be arranged for as little as $120 per month on a 15 year payback basis, as illustrated by the chart below:  

To the $84.39 interest and principal amount, we would add $35.61 to cover administrative costs and to establish an insurance fund for the collective group of Arial Home mortgage recipients.  

Replication Potential  

The Arial Home Initiative is designed to be replicated around the world by as many organizations who wish to use this new way of building. The project is an “open source, open access” Initiative.  All information, documentation, house plans, CAD drawings, supply sources, costs, techniques, logistics, manufacturing procedures, manufacturing equipment, etc. will be available at no charge via this "wiki" site and the Arial Home web site:www.arialhome.org  

Any organization that wishes to copy what the Arial Home Initiative is doing is welcome to do so at no charge, and we will assist them in their efforts.  We will provide design updates to all interested parties.  While one might initially think that this offer should be limited to charitable or non-profit organizations, it is our intention to make the offer to “for profit” companies, as well.  Our philosophy is that any organization that wants to build high quality, low cost homes for poor families, is welcome to use the techniques we have developed.If a company is able to make a profit in the process, there is nothing wrong with that since it contributes to the sustainability of the concept.  

The Arial Home Initiative already has one charitable organization copying part of what we do.The Mariner Church of Orange County, CA, has started a project called Tapestry Homes to build affordable homes in the slums of South African cities:http://tapestryhomes.org/the_problem.aspx  

Representatives from their Tapestry Homes project have visited with us in Ensenada on several occasions, and they have built their first metal insulated panel home in Kayamundi, South Africa. They hope to build a factory in Kayamundi sometime in 2009.  

Standardization of Parts and Processes  

One of the keys to the Arial Home Initiative is the use of standard parts and techniques.  All of the steel parts start as 48” wide sheets of steel because that is the most common size used worldwide.  Steel is the most easily recycled material in the world, so it contributes to the “green” aspects of an Arial Home.

 In our Jupiter, FL facility, we are creating the concept of “a factory in a box.”  We are designing all of the Arial Home manufacturing equipment so that it can be shipped anywhere in the world in a single shipping container.  The factory equipment can be set up in a rented warehouse in just a day or two, and within a few weeks, unskilled workers can be producing metal insulated panels.  

The Arial Home Initiative is designed to be replicated in as many of the poor neighborhoods of the world as funding will enable.  

Short Description of Technology  

The Arial Home Initiative will provide low cost, high quality homes to poor families through the establishment of micro-manufacturing plants in the poorest regions of the world.The process will use economies of scale from volume purchasing, mass production, parts standardization, and modular, metal insulated panels to keep the costs down.  A secondary goal is to establish a local home building economy.  This is an open source project – free for anyone to adopt.  

People Behind the Concept

There have been dozens of thought contributors to The Arial Home Initiative, too many to list. Paul Saydak, a general contractor from Deerfield, IL, has been a prime contributor to the design and on-going improvements to the Arial Homes. Sean Lambert, CEO of YWAM San Diego, has contributed many ideas based on his 15 year experience building Homes of Home houses in Baja, Mexico.  

Students from Princeton University’s Engineering School erected a research and development Arial Home on the University campus on May 28, 2008. We expect to receive many useful design ideas from the students and professors at Princeton as a result of this project.  

The principal designer of the Arial Home, and the Arial Home manufacturing plant, has been Tom Pirelli, with assistance from his wife and partner, Jane Pirelli.