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Comment by adamesque | Hacker News Reader

There's a startup in Austin, TX aiming to compete in a similar space: http://www.reactionhousing.com

Full disclosure: I work there. ;) And if you find this sort of mission compelling: we're hiring software engineers! (firmware, backend) http://www.reactionhousing.com/careers/#embedded-firmware-en... http://www.reactionhousing.com/careers/#software-engineer

Our design is quite different (and geared towards a shorter length of stay) but all the same, I'm excited to see these go into production.

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I'm sorry but you don't seriously think the Exo is comparable to this. The idea of the UNHCR program is to supply low cost, easy to install, easy to maintain housing. The product you've just described doesn't meet any of these requirements when compared to the Ikea solution.

It's a great product and perfect for many use cases e.g. events. But I wouldn't say that you could use it for the millions of desperate refugees in the world.

Electric / digital smart locks that you unlock via a watch or is it bluetooth or NFC?

That does not seem like a rational inclusion in a project intended to be deployed in crisis situations.

Um well our refugees cant get in right now because our generators stopped working or the batteries ran out.

KISS is an extremely important attribute of gear that needs to be deployed fast in under emergency circumstances. By definition it is not known what the conditions will be nor the nature of the catastrophe.

Well that seems exactly like what I'd expect a refugee shelter designed by affluent software engineers to look like.

Heh, it was actually designed by our CEO, a designer from Mississippi — he's been working on the concept since Katrina, finally got it funded a year ago.

Surprised there are no architects on the team - it looks pretty badly designed in terms of energy usage - an impermeable membrane designed to trap heat in. Even a solar attic fan-style ventilation system on the top that pulls hot air out and draws fresh air in from vents on the ground could do great wonders without having to install A/C, etc.

How many of those can you fit in a shipping container? It looks like it is rigid, whilst the Ikea ones are flat pack.

Logistics is everything in disaster relief.

They nest inside each other as the picture shows. This is clearly a low-labour product. Though I think if you have a lot of people needing a house, there's already a pool of excess labor available.

How long are the beds? I'm 6' tall and find that many things are too short. From the pictures, they don't look to be tremendously long (but it is hard to tell).

Also, what's the longest period of time that 4 of you have lived out of one of the prototypes? They look pretty tiny for 4 people. Especially when someone decides they need to get out of one of the upper beds in the middle of the night.

I'm going to assume you've never stayed in a European hostel.

No, I haven't. What's your point? If I had, do you think I would be less likely to ask those questions, or something like that?

To double the lack of point, the average male height in the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway is 6', so presumably the beds in a "European hostel" in those countries will be able to accommodate them.

Have you thought about marketing them as burning man shelter as well?

Very cool concept! I may contact you about that backend position. Seems like exactly what I was looking for.

please do!

This is cool!

Have you guys built any? Can we some real photos? I think all the stuff on your site is renders.

Yep, we've built a number of pre-production units. Hoping to go into production later this year.

There are a few non-rendered photos on our media page: http://www.reactionhousing.com/media/

And another few in an article about us in Popular Mechanics: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/a14357/exo-shelte...

There is sometimes nothing more permanent than something needed temporarily.

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