photography: Robbie Caponetto
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Jasmine Henson and her neighbor Ron Craven are creating an island of sanity in a sea of destruction. A white picket fence and a border of potted flowers enclose Ron's 240-square-foot FEMA trailer. But outside the fence, scattered debris sits on concrete slabs where cozy 1950s cottages once stood overlooking the Gulf in Long Beach, Mississippi. Like many new residents of FEMA housing, Ron and Jasmine are happy to have a roof over their heads, but some of their neighbors question how long anyone can remain positive living in a travel trailer. A group of architects and designers, empowered by recent creative gatherings called charrettes, think they have the answer. Their idea for housing on the Gulf Coast is the Katrina Cottage—a sturdy and well-designed permanent structure that can be built for the equivalent cost of a FEMA trailer.
photography: Rex Perry
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"I wanted to create a more dignified version of the FEMA trailer," says designer Marianne Cusato. "The Katrina Cottage shows how we can create beautiful and affordable homes that give people a place of pride." She stands on the ramp leading to her smallest version of the cottage, on display in downtown Ocean Springs, Mississippi, while residents stop by to look inside. Marianne put her career of creating traditional homes on hold to bring beautiful design to the Katrina Cottage. "I've designed closets that are the size of this cottage, but my heart wasn't in it," says Marianne. "What I've always wanted to do is create a new version of the Sears, Roebuck kit home, and the time was right. How can storm victims start over if they don't have a place to get clean and feel safe?"
The tiny cottage is just the first step for long-term housing to replace the approximately 99,000 occupied FEMA trailers in Louisiana and Mississippi. Local Ocean Springs architects Bruce Tolar and Michael LeBatard are planning a neighborhood of 17 cottages that embrace the "New Urbanist" philosophy of walkable and compact towns whose architecture fits the local vernacular. "People need something in the range of 700 to 1,200 square feet for permanent housing," says Bruce. "The first Katrina Cottage proved we can design an affordable house with humanity—we want to build on that concept."
photography: Robbie Caponetto
Katrina Cottage 2 is a 610-square-foot panelized home that's buildable in about seven days. The Creole inspired home is designed to grow as needs allow and quickly recover from flooding. |
photography: Robbie Caponetto
The interior of Katrina Cottage 2 is finished in water resistant and termite proof fiber-cement wall panels. |
A second constructed version of a Katrina Cottage, designed during a Louisiana charrette, stands in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in St. Bernard Parish near New Orleans. The 610-square-foot home takes the idea of storm survivability to the next level. Even if it's completely submerged in a flood, you simply remove any furnishings that have absorbed water, hose down the interior, and replace the electrical switches. The structure of the house, developed by Home Front Homes in Englewood, Florida, is built with panels sandwiching cement boards and polystyrene foam and can withstand 140-m.p.h. winds. The panelized construction system enabled the cottage to be built in seven days (or even fewer, eventually) for about $70,000. Todd Burns and Alice Garcia pass the model cottage every day walking from the tent they call home to an emergency kitchen nearby. "I'll move into that house right now," says Alice. "It had better survive a flood because we had 7 feet of water in our house for 19 days." "I think it's cute," says Parish resident Barbie Hughes as she steps into the cottage's living room. "It has enough space to live in and it's better than a trailer. Have you been in a FEMA trailer? It's like living on a navy ship."
photography: Robbie Caponetto
Mercy Housing and Human Development chose to begin rebuilding residences near Pass Christian's city center to serve as a beacon of hope for residents. At just over 1,100 square feet,
Etta Dubuisson's new home is larger than most Katrina Cottages, but it retains the vision of building smaller and smarter.
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Crooked homes, twisted by hurricane winds and floods, line Second Street running through Pass Christian, Mississippi. A single cottage under construction near the city center rises from a cleared lot. "Over 80 percent of our town was destroyed," says Gayla Schmitt, with the local Mercy Housing and Human Development. "We're determined that Pass Christian will come back, and that cottage is a first step. When I found out our Rotary Club was donating materials and that the Mennonite Disaster Service was volunteering labor, I bought the plans for the home with my own credit card." The cottage, designed by South Carolina designer Eric Moser, is being built for Etta Dubuisson on the site of her former home. "We love the design because it fits in with the beautiful Creole cottages that used to be here," says Gayla. "We're hoping for more, but we don't have the labor force to build right now." "The coast is going to be rebuilt in a new way," says Michael LeBatard. "We can create smarter and more beautiful homes like these cottages, or we can rebuild it again."
