‘Haiti House’ wants to help develop a modular building industry to employ Haitian citizens. It is planning a factory on the island so that residents can work there to build their own communities in the near future. “We even hate calling [what we’re doing] prefab anymore because it’s such a different animal,” says Haiti House’s Richard Rivette. “This could lay the foundation for alleviating a lot of global poverty.”

As the rainy season comes, post earthquake homeless Haitian families anxiously wait for temporary buildings and some for definite housing solutions.

As architects get involved in rebuilding Haiti after its devastating January 12 earthquake, and debate swirls about what new homes there should look like, a Miami architect has designed a series of prefabricated buildings and has teamed up with a manufacturer to get the dwellings built.

“The ideal model,” says Eduardo Fernandez of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Compan a Miami architectural firm , “should produce a set of a few basic designs, as attuned to the context as can be thought of, for which a complete set of parts could be shipped out very fast, and which could be then assembled by the local workforce.” This is no easy feat: the assembly process should be as simple and as quick as possible, involve no heavy machinery or sophisticated tools or complicated procedures. But arriving at such a solution is key, for as Fernandez explains, “As reconstruction progresses, the erection of prefab factories would be the next logical step, and the best way for foreign companies to help third world economies.”

Andrés Duany, a principal of Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company, proposes using synthetic panels to build compact, modular buildings whose layouts and size would vary slightly depending on their locale.

While other architects have suggested holding a competition to come up with an ideal new home model for Haiti, Duany points out that the rainy season is quickly approaching, in May. “It is absolutely urgent,” he says, “that we do something now.”

His proposed Haitian dwellings forego space for furniture, as many residents just sit on the lips of the open sides of their homes, which are usually propped up on blocks. Plus, his homes don’t have traditional windows, which can let in criminals, bugs, and evil spirits, according to popular thinking, but hinged panels with screens that can be securely fastened.