KEY POINTS:
Hundreds of plastic igloo-like structures could soon dot the landscape of disaster-hit regions, providing shelter to thousands displaced by catastrophes such as 2004's Boxing Day tsunami.
At least that is rotational moulding specialist Polybreeze International's hope for its Breezepod housing modules.
The Mercer-based company is one of 110 companies attending the second Pacific Trade Expo, which starts today at the Waitakere City's Trusts Stadium. The expo brings together businesses from 14 Pacific nations, with Government delegations from New Caledonia, Tonga, Samoa, the Cook Islands and Vanuatu.
Polybreeze managing director Charles Bree said the expo was the first international market forum where they were promoting the yurt-like structures, which the company has spent the past year perfecting.
"We've got the process right, the first good one's out at the moment, and we're really ready to talk to people now."
Bree said the Breezepod, which is made from medium density polyethylene, has the potential to provide quick, durable and cheap alternative dwellings in emergency situations.
"We say it's emergency housing but it's a permanent emergency house."
When moulded, they are produced without a floor, so can be stacked easily for shipping. Or the moulding oven and associated machinery can be transported to the site where they are needed.
It would take a couple of weeks to set up the machinery and once ready, up to five houses can be fabricated a day, he said.
Or constructed homes could be taken by helicopter to areas most in need.
He estimates that the standard module, measuring 19.6sq m of floorspace, could house a family of five. Or individual homes could be linked together to provide a larger living space.
Bree said interest in them as permanent homes had come from all over New Zealand, but the company was still sorting out the logistics of shipping and installing them.
Interest had also come from places such as South Africa, Australia, India, China and Sri Lanka.
Bree said international market expansion was likely in the form of joint ventures, with the company supplying the technical and production know-how while the partner supplied the capital.
Melino Maka, deputy chairman of the New Zealand Pacific Business Council, said the expo was an exciting opportunity for New Zealand and Pacific traders to grow their businesses.
"With over a billion dollars in export sales to the Pacific during 2007 alone, on our doorstep lies a market that we have only just begun to tap."
