In the fall of 2005, FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) purchased approximately 145,000 travel trailers and mobile homes to house Gulf Coast residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Since their deployment, the trailers have been tied to a host of issues:

• health concerns due to formaldehyde off-gassing in the trailers (at the center of a class-action lawsuit against FEMA and trailer manufacturers)
• spikes in documented mental health problems in residents of trailer parks
• the lack of affordable housing in many regions of the Gulf Coast available to residents moving out of trailers
• thousands of idle surplus trailers currently sitting in rented parking lots across the country.

As such, the FEMA Trailer has come to symbolize many of the environmental, social, economic, and administrative challenges associated with temporary disaster housing. The goal of the MIT FEMA Trailer Project is to catalyze positive change in these areas through:

• The MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge, a collaboration between the MIT Visual Arts Program and the MIT Public Service Center
• Course 4.365, Advanced Projects in Visual Arts: The MIT FEMA Trailer Project, taught by Visiting Lecturer Jae Rhim Lee in the MIT Visual Arts Program

The goals and directives of the MIT FEMA Trailer Project are:

1. Investigate the historical and current environmental, political, and social issues related to FEMA Trailers.
2. Formulate feasible, socially conscious, and innovative alternative uses for the 94,000+ surplus FEMA Trailers through the MIT FEMA Trailer Challenge.
3. Compile and publish a document with technologies applicable to FEMA Trailers and ideas for alternative uses of surplus trailers generated by the Challenge, course projects, and from outside MIT. This document will be submitted to FEMA, other governmental agencies, and interested parties.
4. Transform a single FEMA trailer currently located at MIT into an alternative vehicle which will be donated to a community or non-profit organization, as part of the Transdiciplinary Art Course "Advanced Projects in Visual Arts: The MIT FEMA Trailer Project." The course applies environmental justice and permaculture principles in the conceptualization and re-design of the trailer.

FEMA Trailer Timeline

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Team

Directors:
Jae Rhim Lee, SMVisS '06, Visiting Lecturer, MIT Visual Arts Program, Dept of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning
Sally Susnowitz, Assistant Dean, Student Life, and Director, MIT Public Service Center

Advisors:
Ute Meta Bauer, Assoc. Professor and Director, MIT Visual Arts Program, Dept of Architecture, School of Architecture and Planning
Lars Hasselblad Torres, MIT IDEAS Competition, MIT Public Service Center

Team Members:
Gina Badger G'10
Caitlin Berrigan G'09 (Teaching Assistant)
Colin Kerr G'08
Samuel Kronick UG '10
Gena Peditto G'07 (Project Manager)
Lisa Schlect UG '10 (UROP)
Alyssa Wright, MAS '08
Mike Shafran
Christopher Taylor G'09
Tarick T. Walton, UG '11 (UROP, Project Coordinator)
Kari Williams UG '11
Lucille Ynosencio G'09

Alumni:
Allison Dee UG '09, UROP, Management Sciences
Maryann Chu UG '08, UROP, Civil Engineering
Jason Rockwood G'09, Graduate Student, Comparative Media Studies
Priyanka Shah G'08, Teaching Assistant, DUSP/Architecture
Jegan Vincent De Paul G'09, Teaching Assistant, Visual Arts Program

Website:
Joshua Velasquez '08, MIT Student Activities Office

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©2008 MIT