Function, style merge in emergency mobile homes at Little Tokyo Design Week

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The victims of Hurricane Katrina would have benefited from the mobile emergency housing unit on display during Little Tokyo Design Week. Called the EDV-01, the self-contained mobile home not only provides shelter but generates its own electricity and water for two adults for an entire month.

The stainless steel container is 18 feet long, 6 feet wide and 6 feet tall. With the flip of a switch, a hydraulic pump raises the walls to form a second floor with fold-away beds and an office space. The ground floor contains a shower and bio-toilet, as well as a kitchen that cooks food with induction heating.

Equipped with a rooftop solar system and a fuel cell to generate power that’s stored in lithium-ion batteries, the emergency house can also pluck enough moisture from the air to collect about 5 gallons of drinkable water per day.

‘We are extremely proud to ... [show] how design can be used to create function in adverse emergency situations which can be utilized in an efficient and self-contained unit,’ said Hitoshi Abe, chair of Little Tokyo Design Week and director of the UCLA Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies and UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design.

Designed by the Japanese firm Daiwa House, the EDV-01 is making its U.S. debut during Little Tokyo Design Week. It’s on display in the plaza of the Museum of Contemporary Art in downtown L.A. through Sunday.

-- Susan Carpenter