Vijay Govindarajan's Urban Renewal: Building a House for $300

The average price of a New York City hotel room is $320/night--and that bloated number is considered a reasonable rate. But now, thanks to Vijay Govindarajan, international business professor at Dartmouth, people will be able to buy an entire house for less than a single night in the Big Apple. Together, with a team of students and lecturers at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business, Govindarajan is developing the $300 House, a survival shelter intended for use in developing countries and places struck by natural disasters. 

Govindarajan explains the problem.

"Over 70 million people – the size of the United Kingdom – live in pavements with only sky as their roof. Is this right? Even insects and spiders have houses. Housing is a human right. Any nation which cannot house and look after its own people is a failed nation. It doesn't have to be that way. Businesses, governments, and NGOs must work together to solve this wicked problem." 

Govindarajan's house "would turn strangers into neighbors, slums into neighborhoods. Despite the ultra-low price point, it could include basic modern services such as running water and electricity. More important, it would create a community that shared access to computers, cell phones, televisions, water filters, solar panels, and clean-burning stoves. In doing so, it would enable the poor to leapfrog the limits of slums. It would make healthy and safe living possible and a good education achievable."

Healthy and safe are the operative words here, as the "house" is essentially a one-room structure with hammocks, folding chairs and drop-down partitions for privacy. Each unit would include the aforementioned water filter and rooftop solar panel to power solar batteries. 

Govindarajan and his team recently held a competition in which 300 design teams submitted their proposals. Now that the winners have been announced, the process of prototyping will begin, with plans for three projects in Ethiopia, Haiti and India. There are plenty of ways for non-profits, universities and individuals to get involved now.

-- Perrin Drumm

Re-sewn & Re-purposed: Atelier Volvox's Collection of Twice-Loved Stuffed Animals

Ever wonder what happens to all the unloved stuffed animals of the world, even the really sad-looking ones that sit in a bin at the Salvation Army and never find a home? Swiss design outlet Atelier Volvox is giving some of those secondhand zebras and giraffes and new life with "Outsiders," their latest project and the winner of Germany's Recycling Design Preis 2012. Their collection of inside-out stuffed toys bested 600 entries in the Preis this year and snagged a nice chunk of prize money (€2500) too.

The formula for Volvox's idea is pretty straightforward: cut open, turn out, restuff and sew. The execution is purposely crude, and it's clear from the rest of the portfolio that they're perfectly capable of a high level of production quality, like Tischbaum (literally tree structure), a handy desk accessory, or Werbank 2.0 aka the desk of our dreams. What we really like about Volvox is their willingness to play and create impractical objects for their conceptual value alone, like the series Für das Tier in mir, or "For the Animal in me," a line that connects products with our animalistic side. There's a hobo's stick on wheels (like a rolling suitcase), a white oxford with two neon yellow circles in the arm pits and a pair of women's see-through underwear with an embroidered cat on the front playing with the crotch area. 

If you want to make your own collection of inside-out animals but don't know your way around a needle and thread? Easy: check out 3rd Ward's Level 1 Sewing class. Meanwhile, grab a few more glimpses of Volvox's work: