Tiny buildings for Fresno's homeless need a home - architect is building eco-villages for transients

[Kadie]

Tiny buildings for Fresno's homeless need a home
Fresno architect is building eco-villages for transients, but a suitable location is needed.
Posted at 11:31 PM on Thursday, May. 13, 2010
By Marc Benjamin / The Fresno Bee


DARRELL WONG / THE FRESNO BEE - Fresno State students work together Thursday to raise the third wall of a housing structure intended as a solution for the city's homeless.

Fresno architect Arthur Dyson says he has the solution to the city's homeless problem: villages of tiny homes built with recycled materials and surrounded by fruit trees.

The first structures -- some measuring only 80 square feet -- are already under construction on the Fresno State campus, where Dyson has been working with students in a construction management class to develop concepts.

But the structures won't become living spaces for the homeless unless city officials can find a suitable spot for them.

Gregory Barfield, Fresno's homeless prevention and policy manager, said the city is ready to assist Dyson with the project, including finding a site.

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If all hurdles can be overcome, the project will be unlike others that attempt to help the homeless, said Jeff Pflueger, a Bay Area photojournalist who has chronicled the Fresno homeless problem.

"It's a pretty revolutionary model the way is bringing together different people in the community, engaging students as advocates for the homeless while they are learning architecture and sustainable building," he said.

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He envisioned an "eco-village" that would include housing units set up in a field surrounded by trees and gardens, a central building with a kitchen and bathrooms and another larger building for the sale of goods created or grown by residents.

Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/05/13/1932637/buildings-for-fresnos-homeless.html#ixzz0nuyFwgt9