In Erftstadt, refugee housing has existed for some time in the form of containers. When further accommodation was called for by the German Government, Peter Schranz and his team at GHS won the tender convincingly.
Erftstadt is situated west of the city of Cologne and has taken on the task of offering assistance in times of large migratory flows. As a result, huge container villages were erected relatively quickly in an industrial area which were intended to provide accommodation for the incoming asylum-seekers. However, the German government wished to generate still more sleeping places, and put this project out to public tender. Besides the usual container solutions, alternative suggestions were permissible, and it was this fact which attracted the team from GHS. “The idea was to work in a cost-saving manner, and additionally to achieve better thermal insulation than is possible with containers”, explains Project Manager Peter Schranz.
The Temporary Home by GHS is based on a timber-frame construction; a high-quality foam filling serves as a shell, and all “the extra bits” play both a role in the statics as well as acting as thermal insulation. On 7th March 2017, four completely identical buildings with a total utility area of 1400 m2 were assembled on a large green field, each featuring rooms measuring 12 m2 for two people. In addition, there are also small communal rooms, kitchens and washrooms in each house. The project was successfully completed on 11th May 2017, after a construction period of only two months.