The Singapore company tackling homelessness by building solar homes

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The Singapore company tackling homelessness by building solar homes

BillionBricks, a Singapore-based innovation studio founded by Anurag Srivastava and Prasoon Kumar, is aiming to build the world's first community powered by solar energy in the Philippines by 2022, where the less privileged can own and finance their own homes.

26 Nov 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 08 Oct 2022 04:33PM)

I of the things that the COVID-nineteen pandemic has shown us is that our homes are a prophylactic space, a sanctuary for when the world appears to exist in upheaval. In these unprecedented times, the concept of home has evolved to become a place where nosotros not but alive, but piece of work likewise.

Nonetheless, housing is a privilege that not everyone tin can afford. Across the world, approximately 150 million people are homeless, while 1.6 billion live in inadequate housing conditions, according to information from the Un (Un).

BillionBricks, a social enterprise based in Singapore, wants to eliminate homelessness and provide a dignified dwelling house to anybody, including the needy.

The company was founded in 2022 past Prasoon Kumar, together with his former boss, venture capitalist and entrepreneur Anurag Srivastava. Dorsum and then, Kumar was working as an architect at interior design firm Space Matrix, where Srivastava was CEO.

After spending several years designing around 10,000 homes for people who could afford them, Kumar felt a growing sense of unease that he hasn't done much to aid solve the nagging problem of homelessness, an issue prevalent across many cities.

"Architects always talk most contributing to a better living environment. Only professionals like me, nosotros kept building these fancy malls, hospitals and buildings. When nosotros go to conferences, nosotros talked about how we should do meliorate work. But in reality, we go back and don't do much," Kumar mused.

"That really prompted me to question, why is it that we are equipped with all these skills and ideas, just we're not applying it to where information technology'southward needed the most?"

"Architects always talk about contributing to a better living environment. But professionals like me, we kept building these fancy malls, hospitals and buildings," said Prasoon Kumar. (Photograph: Aik Chen)

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Driven by a desire to do more meaningful work, Kumar handed in his resignation letter of the alphabet to Srivastava. Just instead of convincing him to stay, Srivastava decided to invest in Kumar'due south vision.

"I've known Prasoon for many years, he's an amazing urban planner. He was always very passionate almost doing good work. It was very heartening to hear him say that he wanted to focus on solving the problem of homelessness," Srivastava shared.

For Srivastava, who grew upwardly in a lower-middle class household in Uttar Pradesh, India, homelessness is a cause that's close to his heart. "Where I lived, in that location were people who were living on the streets. The divergence is, I went to school, they didn't," he said.

"One affair you realise is that life begins with a roof over your caput. If you don't accept a habitation, y'all tin can't get an pedagogy, access to healthcare, prophylactic and security. There's a lot of non-turn a profit work surrounding education, empowering girls, and working with less privileged kids. Merely a lot of that piece of work is still going to people with roofs over their heads."

Anurag Srivastava grew upwards in a lower-middle class household in Uttar Pradesh, India, but went on to become a venture capitalist and entrepreneur. (Photo: Aik Chen)

PIONEERING A REVOLUTIONARY LIFE-SAVING TENT

BillionBricks started off as a non-profit organisation, but right from the first, the founders were convinced that they did not want to simply do "some good work here and there". Instead, BillionBricks sees itself as an innovation studio that works on creating systemic solutions that can bulldoze meaningful change.

"The way nosotros look at innovation is from the perspective of design, which is where my groundwork is. How can we pattern completely new homes, and wait at it from a technology standpoint to encounter what new innovations nosotros can comprise?" Kumar explained.

BillionBricks' pioneering invention was an emergency tent named WeatherHYDE, which the company says is "the world's just reversible all-season family tent". In the winter, the tent tin protect occupants from the cold. During the warmer months, information technology can be reversed to reverberate heat from the lord's day.

The tent was created in response to riots in Bharat in 2022 that had left thousands of families displaced. More than than thirty children died when temperatures fell to below freezing level at nighttime. "That incident became the inspiration for WeatherHYDE. Why is information technology that in the 21st century, we can't protect our children from something as simple equally the common cold?" Kumar said.

"One of the start recipients of WeatherHYDE in Bharat was a woman named Kushi. I remember I gave the tent to her, and the side by side morning time, she said to me, 'This is my starting time ever home'. I was surprised because we've always talked well-nigh WeatherHYDE every bit a tent. But for her, it meant a lot more. That's when nosotros realised what change we could bring in, and what this meant for people on the streets," he continued.

BillionBricks' pioneering invention was an emergency tent named WeatherHYDE. (Photo: BillionBricks)

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Since then, WeatherHYDE has been used in countries all over the world, including the The states, Canada, Mexico and Nepal. The tents tin be purchased for around United states$300 (S$402) each. Donors from around the globe have approached BillionBricks to purchase the tents for the homeless in their communities.

The global utilize of WeatherHYDE is something the founders find encouraging. "We had designed a product in Singapore, for an incident in India, and manufactured it in Cathay. Merely it is at present used all over the earth," Kumar shared. "That proved that nosotros tin solve a critical issue that'due south global in nature with a solution that's scalable."

"People accept also gotten artistic with the utilise of these tents," Srivastava shared. Bated from existence a place to take shelter, WeatherHYDE tents have been used as shops, changing rooms, bathrooms, and fifty-fifty a charging infinite for phones.

"I like the idea that it has go more than than just a dwelling house. We've created the solution, and people have adjusted it co-ordinate to their needs," Kumar added.

WeatherHYDE, the company says, is "the world's only reversible all-flavor family tent". (Photo: BillionBricks)

WORLD'S First SELF-FINANCING SOLAR HOMES

While WeatherHYDE has accomplished considerable success, the founders believe that a tent is only an interim housing solution. The side by side chapter for the company is pioneering the development of BillionBricks Home, the globe'southward first self-financing, carbon-negative solar habitation solution.

"Nosotros realised that the core effect is people don't accept the fiscal capacity to purchase a business firm. There are a lot of innovations out there that tin can make housing cheaper, only it makes no deviation if people still can't beget it," Kumar said.

Building more houses likewise raises the issue of increasing energy consumption, which would inadvertently contribute to climate issues. "Nosotros may be able to solve one problem, but now nosotros need some other organisation to come up in and solve the energy issue. We wanted to build a home that is able to produce its own energy, equipped with its own fiscal mechanism so people can afford it."

Each BillionBricks Home will exist equipped with solar panels that are capable of producing four times more than energy than what it consumes. Families tin can then sell the unused free energy to the grid and generate additional income, which tin exist used to pay off the construction cost of the home.

Each house can also collect its ain rainwater, clean its ain waste, and has a forepart k for growing nutrient.

A prototype of a BillionBricks home. (Photo: BillionBricks)

The company describes this solution as "a radical arroyo to sustainable housing". "Hypothetically, with this, everybody in the earth can have a dwelling," Kumar said.

The idea is to too connect these families to the rest of the world past bringing in the Internet and other forms of engineering. This will allow for remote working, giving families more employment opportunities.

"A lot of possibilities will open up once you solve the trouble of energy," Srivastava said. "Today, I tin can take part in a yoga grade from my home, while my yoga teacher is somewhere in Mumbai. At the same time, somebody in Chicago is working from domicile. Why can't the less privileged practise the same in ane of our BillionBricks Home?"

"Today, I tin accept part in a yoga course from my home, while my yoga teacher is somewhere in Mumbai. At the same fourth dimension, somebody in Chicago is working from domicile. Why can't the less privileged do the same in ane of our BillionBricks Habitation?" – Anurag Srivastava

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Prototypes for BillionBricks Home have been built in both India and the Philippines. To fuel the growth of this innovation, this year, BillionBricks has besides restructured to go a for-profit social business.

The non-turn a profit structure had its limitations in allowing the system to achieve its aims at a faster footstep, the founders shared. For one, capital is required for research and development, and the visitor needs to attract the all-time talent, technology and the right strategic partnerships.

In 2022, BillionBricks will begin developing the start community of solar homes in the Philippines. The aim is to build a total of 500 homes, with the capacity to produce 10MW of energy.

If the model succeeds, BillionBricks will scale its solar-powered community globally. The ultimate aim is to build 25,000 homes, with the capacity to produce 350MW of free energy, in the side by side five years.

"Going dorsum to our initial premise that the home is a starting point for improving lives, we are at present building this community where nosotros can increase people's incomes, increment their access and connectivity to the rest of the world, and provide them with quality healthcare and food. That's really the goal in building the community," Kumar shared.

According to Kumar, BillionBricks will be not just a housing player, but "a big energy visitor" as well. "We desire to push button the boundaries further equally an arrangement and actually build these ideas that can bring in modify from the bottom-upwardly. This problem of homelessness has got to exist solved. Today, we see companies creating innovations that tin can send people to Mars, but why are we non solving a problem that affects a billion people?"

"The baseline is for us to get the right business model where we can combine housing and energy, and create a self-sustaining model. This solution volition then become a playbook which we tin can hand over to thousands of organisations in the world to replicate. Only then will this trouble get solved," said Srivastava.

"We are now edifice this community where we tin increase people's incomes, increment their access and connectivity to the residual of the world, and provide them with quality healthcare and food." – Prasoon Kumar

The Singapore company tackling homelessness by building solar homes

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