REAL(ly) Affordable and Sustainable Housing Hits the Negev

What’s the next challenge for the World Trade Center’s chief engineer?

Designing solar-powered houses in the Negev desert that can be built from scratch in nine weeks? Unlikely, but true.

Hy Brown is a man on a mission. Originally driven by the will to find a constructive response to the terrorists who felled his creation in Manhattan and the chronic shortage of inexpensive housing in Israel, the REAL (Renewable Energy for Affordable Living) Housing company was born last year (on 11 September, no less). Partly constructed from discarded shipping containers, the houses will be built with energy-conserving insulation as well as solar panels, Brown told me on the two-hour drive from Jerusalem to Ashalim, 40km south of Beersheba, where the first REAL home lives.

The lonely pilot house in the desert could be the first of many if the fledging company can get investors to help it match demand. Watch this space.

Related Prophecies: Green Building or Greenwashing in Kfar Saba? and Geotectura Builds a Green Future for Israel’s Real Estate.

:: REAL Housing.

Photo: Michael Green.