Page 44 - English for Construction 2

Focus on a project: Emergency housing

Speaking 1 Work n small groups. Think bout some recent, large-scale natural disasters
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(e.g. earthquakes, floods). Brainstorm factors you hink are mportant in the
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construction of post-disaster housing.
transportation of emergency housing to disaster zone
Reading 2 In wo groups, read the articles about emergency housing in China and Japan.
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Group A: Read Article A. Group B: Read Article B. Then n A/B pairs compare
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the words n our article hat mean:
1 at he same time
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2 movable
3 a building used for storage of materials
A r t i c l e A
Modular construction methods are becoming more and
more popular in many parts of the w o r l d and are often
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used n emergency house construction. The prefabrication
can be carried out concurrently w i t h the site preparation,
allowing significant savings in terms of cost and also of
time. The photo shows prefabricated buildings erected to
house earthquake victims in Sichuan Province in China in
2008. I n such buildings, modules are either delivered almost
ready to use or are assembled on site. Larger span structures
such as warehouses often make use of steel frameworks. Walls
are ypically made of expanded polystyrene (EPS) sandwich
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panels. Another variation is to use mobile homes, w h i c h can
be transported to different locations and reused as necessary.

A r t i c l e B
The supply of food and medicine is vital after any natural
disaster, but relief organisations also need to simultaneously
provide shelter for the survivors. There are many possible
solutions, including using shipping containers, tents and
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plastic sheeting. Often survivors are housed n large buildings
such as storehouses or schools and so simple walls are needed
to divide up areas into smaller, private spaces. After the 2011
tsunami in Japan, one way Japanese companies solved the
problem was to make partitions out of materials such as paper
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and cardboard. n some cases, whole houses were built out of
cardboard. These houses are very portable, cheap and quick to
erect, but need to be covered i n plastic sheeting if they are to
stand up to the weather.

Speaking 3 Work n pairs and discuss these questions. Refer o he article ou read in 2.
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1 What natural disaster does the article mention?
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2 What ype of emergency housing does he article describe?
3 What construction materials were used?
4 Imagine a natural disaster n our country. Your company warehouse is full of
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old shipping containers that victims could use as emergency housing. Many
employees have volunteered o help and the company director has agreed to
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cover costs. Discuss the process you need to follow to get the containers to the
disaster area and in use as emergency housing.
42 5 Processes