DoomsdaysCW<p><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/FireResistant" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>FireResistant</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sustainable" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sustainable</span></a> home could help address housing crisis </p><p>BY Bree Steffen<br>Feb. 06, 2025</p><p>"Professor Daniel López-Pérez is the architecture program director at the University of San Diego. He designed a fire-resistant home he calls the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Polyhaus" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Polyhaus</span></a>, a 540 square foot home which consists of just sixty-four panels.</p><p>"Instead of traditional lumber, Daniel says the Polyhaus was built using mass-timber products, which offer half the rigidity of reinforced concrete, while weighing a fraction (20%), and has a burn rate of hours (1.5 inches per hour of char-rate).</p><p>"'Fire cannot enter. It has a harder time entering,' López-Pérez said. 'So it’s char rate, given its massiveness of weight and the fact that it has no air cavities.'</p><p>"He said all the Douglas Fir came from Washington as part of a collaboration with a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/reforestation" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>reforestation</span></a> project, creating a plug-and-play housing model that slashes construction costs and helps keep forests healthy. Traditional home construction requires thousands of two-by-fours and extensive manual framing.</p><p>"The Polyhaus system simplifies this process significantly.</p><p>"Joaquin Ramirez has been working to reduce the impact of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/wildfires" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>wildfires</span></a> and extreme weather through his company <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Technosylva" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Technosylva</span></a>. He also works with the International Association of Wildland Fire analyzing wildfire risk and working with agencies like CAL Fire to make operations safer.</p><p>"'I feel like it’s a genius design,' Ramirez said. 'You have a structure there are no holes, which that is really critical.' </p><p>"He said right now there is a great need for innovation in making communities safer in the face of <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateChange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateChange</span></a>, and this design is an example of an accessible solution.</p><p>"'I think it’s important that our citizens understand that everybody needs to be a part of the solution. This is not a firefighter job only,' Ramirez said. 'It has to start by the house, then our community, then the surrounding communities.'</p><p>"López-Pérez built the first model of the Polyhaus in his own backyard, a reminder of the work to be done to build <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ClimateResilient" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ClimateResilient</span></a> communities.</p><p>"'The recent fires have reminded us that we have to have that consciousness, we have to have a direct link between our housing production and the health of our forests, the health of our environment,' he said."</p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/southern-california/wildfires/2025/02/06/fire-resistant--sustainable-home-could-help-address-housing-crisis" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">spectrumnews1.com/ca/southern-</span><span class="invisible">california/wildfires/2025/02/06/fire-resistant--sustainable-home-could-help-address-housing-crisis</span></a></p><p>Archived version:<br><a href="https://archive.ph/QpbHh" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="">archive.ph/QpbHh</span><span class="invisible"></span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/SolarPunkSunday" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>SolarPunkSunday</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Resiliency" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Resiliency</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BuildingForClimateChange" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BuildingForClimateChange</span></a></p>