As reported in Sphere.com, retired Georgia Institute of Technology ID professor Richard Martin has an idea for Haitian disaster housing: Shipping containers.

"Right now, the way I see it, there is no way you can use conventional construction to rebuild Haiti," says Martin. "The concrete block they use is very weak. It just crumbled, and they can't afford the cement to make proper concrete. Everything has to be imported, so why not import some containers, just position them and put in windows and doors and interiors?"

...Martin is not just talking theory. He has already used containers to build schools in Jamaica and Haiti, and says he has seen photos of containers that remained intact after Haiti's 7.0-magnitude earthquake on Jan. 12.

Read the full story here.