Article about Project Hope House

Check out this article about Project Hope House in the Lumina News by clicking here.

$300 House and Haiti

Recently, PHH signed on as an advisor to an ambitious- yet essential- to design and deliver a home that cost $300 or less to the world's slums.

To view a video address from the movements founder, Vijay Govindarajan, CLICK HERE.

To visit the project's website CLICK HERE.

Project Hope House plans to share designs it is currently developing for reconstruction efforts in Haiti for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture's Haiti Ideas Challenge. PHH is in the early design stages of developing a home constructed using waste agriculture projects. Stay tuned for developments.

SODIS Pump, water filtration system

This system, in development by Project Hope House in collaboration with the Full Belly Project, has been developed to provide clean water to remote and under-served areas. While being specifically designed in response to the recent cholera outbreaks in Haiti, it can also be easily applied to equatorial areas throughout the world. This system relies on the SODIS method of treatment for water-borne diarrheal and parasitic pathogens which kill thousands each year and are among the leading causes of child mortality. The SODIS method effectively pasteurizes water by exposing it to the heat and UV radiation of the sun in clear polyethylene (PET)containers. This strategy is currently promoted by the World Health Organization as an effective way to treat sources of water. Current manifestations involve filing clear plastic water bottles with water and leaving them exposed to the sun for up to six hours. This practice is not only labor intensive, but also creates waste in the form of non-biodegradable plastic containers in locations where recycling and responsible disposal infrastructure is non-existent. Furthermore. these types of containers are rare in the developing world. as blue and green tinted plastic bottles are cheaper and more readily available. The SODIS PUMP is an evolution of the existing SODIS practice, providing a more readily distributable, less time consuming, and more ecologically and economically sensitive method of water treatment.


The SODIS PUMP consists of four simple and widely available components: (1) a water source, (2) a rooftop array of clear plastic tubing, (3) an ergonomic modular pump,(4)and a dispensary container. Each morning. water is loaded into the system from individual or community supplies. Water is drawn into an arrangement of common clear plastic tubing on a roof or other area exposed to the sun using the modular concrete "Rocking Water Pump" developed by The Full Belly Project. These ergonomic pumps are made from simple materials such as concrete, rubber or latex sheet material, and steel bar stock. The pump's chambers are made using a fiberglass master-form, which can mold an unlimited amount of distributable pump housings near where they are needed. The cache of water in the loaded system is left exposed through the heat of the day. Here, water-borne pathogens are deactivated through a combination of heat and UV radiation. That evening, the clean water is emptied into a concrete container which is sized to match the volume of tubing in the corresponding array. This container is also made using an adjustable fiberglass master form which can provide properly sized containers for a myriad of system capacities.

This system will be incorporated into the Hope House's off-grid utility components.

For more information on The Full Belly Project visit thefullbellyproject.org.

For more information on SODIS CLICK HERE.

Hope House Design Development

I have posted the latest designs for the Hope House, an affordable modular home designed for the poor of rural Nicaragua. The plans for the house are currently being developed. This includes refining construction details, analyzing costs, and formulating a plan for the manucture of the home's components. Stay Tuned!

To see the design CLICK HERE.

Los Campos Center for Sports and Agriculture

Along with developing the Hope House, PHH is working with Save A Generation to design a unique community center in Somotillo, Nicaragua. The "Los Campos Center for Sports & Agriculture" is a project conceiveD for Nike's Gamechanger Sports Microventure Fund Grant Challange. Toby & Audrey have prepared a grant proposal which consists of facility that combines participation in organized sports with agricultural research and education. Agriculture is the life blood of the area, and many families struggle to manage crops both for consumption and revenue. This center would act as a research and training zone where experimental crops selected for their nutritional and economic value could be grown and tested for the area. Community members at the center would be trained on the upkeep, harvest, and sale of these crops. In order to boost participation in the center's activities, a public multi-sport (baseball and soccer) field would also be installed. Connecting the playing and planting fields would be a shelter/ storage structure which would serve as a dual purpose barn and bleacher structure.

For more information CLICK HERE.