Alum reinvents home building

When Tom Pirelli '69 set off on a church trip to Mexico, he hoped to make a difference by building homes there for people in need. But when he returned, he was frustrated.

The construction jobs he had witnessed, while well-intentioned, suffered from low quality and a slow pace. "As a Princeton engineer," Pirelli said, "I couldn't help but think we could do it better."

He decided to try. Founding a new charity — the Arial Home Initiative — he designed a modular house constructed of foam-insulated, tongue-in-groove steel panels, complete with a bedroom, a bathroom and a room that serves as a kitchen and living room. A team of volunteers can build the house in a day.

His method drastically speeds up what can be a clunky and time-consuming endeavor for many volunteer organizations. A group of more than two dozen people from Chicago, for instance, spent three weeks building one house in South Africa.

But by employing mass production and assembly lines, Pirelli explained, he hopes to revolutionize charity home construction. "I set out to change the metaphor from stick-by-stick building to building the pieces in a factory and then just manufacturing on site," he said. "We should crank the pieces out like Lego blocks so houses have a lower cost and construction is more efficient."

After conceiving his design, Pirelli turned to his alma mater for help, recruiting engineering students and professors for critiques of his prototype. He also met with Engineers Without Borders and several faculty members.

"People at Princeton could help to analyze and make suggestions," Pirelli said. "We are facing a whole new set of challenges because of building in the developing world, so I really wanted to get Princeton professors and students involved."

This summer, Pirelli took 39 students to Mexico, where they built eight houses in four days. The process, he said, "is not really building a house, but just assembling pieces."

Next, Pirelli plans to try incorporating solar power into his houses. He is also working on facilitating human waste disposal in countries without running water or sewage systems.

The Arial Home Initiative has found marked support on campus. "Princeton is involved in trying to improve third-world countries," Pirelli said. "It's a logical fit."

Stephen Tavares '08, president of Engineers Without Borders, has been a student liaison to the project. "I think [Pirelli's] initiatives have a lot of promise, but there is still a lot of work to be done on both the model of the house, the financing of it in the Third World and its sociological impact on the natives using it," he said. "I think it is a great step in the right direction, though, and hopefully with students' help the project can be improved greatly."

Engineers Without Borders may build a model home on campus. "I think building a mock model home would be great for students to get a look at what the project is about," Tavares said.

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Pirelli said he is hopeful that independent research will arise from the plan. "The Arial Foundation is willing to sponsor bright young juniors and senior who are interested in doing independent work," he said.

There has been considerable difficulty thus far in getting approval for the temporary model to be built, however. Obstacles have included zoning code issues and the need to get consent from both the University and Princeton Borough.

Noah Manring, associate dean for administration, engineering and applied science, is talking to local authorities and trying to get a temporary permit for the project.

Though some people object to the idea of mass producing homes because they would lack individuality, Pirelli said poverty-level residences should focus on more basic considerations.

"The concept fits low-level housing," he said. "As long as it's warm and dry, it's a palace to them."