德州大學生建造廉價棚屋
A refugee camp built by students and volunteers spreads over Southern Methodist University's expanse of green lawns and live oaks. The affordable shelters are designed to be used by the poor as well as survivors of war and natural disasters.
從4月17號到23號，德州城市達拉斯的南部衛理公會大學20多名學生和一小組志願者一直住在他們在校園裏搭建的一個臨時難民營中。他們建造了一些價格低廉的庇護所，可供窮人以及戰爭和自然災害的倖存者居住。
The diverse structures are clustered around a white United Nations tent. A six-sided poly-propylene and aluminum house is adjacent to a dome-shaped igloo made of sandbags. Next door is a recycled plastic-brick-and-mud hut. SMU senior engineering major Carson Linstead, who helped erect the dozen different buildings, spent a week living in them.
南部衛理公會大學的綠色草坪和橡樹之間，分佈着一些各式各樣的建築，它們環繞在一個白色的聯合國帳篷周圍。一個由聚丙烯和鋁材料建造的六邊形房屋和一個由沙包建造的圓頂小屋靠在一起。旁邊是一個由回收塑料袋製作的棚屋。包括土木工程學專業四年紀學生卡爾森·林斯特德在內的南部衛理公會大學的學生幫助建造了十幾個不同的建築。他們在裏面住了一個星期。
"The biggest thing is I'm getting a perspective about what's going on in different parts of the world," he says. "Whenever you're an SMU student, it's easy to get caught up in the city and kind of your own little bubble, your own little world. Whenever you're an engineer, there are so many problems you're capable of solving."
林斯特德說：“最大的收穫是，我對世界不同地方發生的事情有了瞭解。你如果是南部衛理公會大學的學生，你很容易陷在城市生活和自己的小世界裏。但是，你如果是工程師，你就有能力解決很多問題。”
Problems such as lack of shelter or power in post-Katrina New Orleans, Haiti's Port-au-Prince after the earthquake, or impoverished villages in the developing world.
例如，卡特里娜颶風后的新奧爾良市、地震後的海地的太子港，以及發展中世界的貧困鄉村缺少庇護所和電力。
"By the time we reach 2020, there's going to be about 1.7 billion people living in slums and so we would like to effect change," says Stephanie Hunt, co-founder of the Hunt Institute for Engineering and Humanities at SMU. The institute was established to solve problems of the poor in the United States and around the world through engineering, collaboration and the free market. It helped fund the village on SMU's campus.
斯塔芬妮·亨特是南部衛理公會大學工程學和人文學亨特研究所的聯合創辦人。她說：“到2020年，將會有大約17億人居住在貧民窟裏。因此，我們希望能帶來一些改變。”亨特說，開設這個研究所的目的是通過工程學、相互合作和自由市場等辦法，解決美國和全世界窮人面臨的一些問題。亨特的研究所資助建造這個難民村，爲的是向人們展示一些解決辦法。
"We would like to inspire the next generation of engineer, entrepreneur, anthropologist, lawyer, anyone who can help," she says. That extends to helping find solutions to every day problems facing some of the world's poorest people, such as access to clean water.
她說：“我們希望鼓勵下一代工程師、企業家、人類學家、律師，以及任何有能力幫助消滅貧困的人，也許不是消滅貧困，而是消滅極端貧困，因爲貧困總會存在，不太可能根除。我們願意通過合作，幫助解決窮人日常生活中面臨的一些問題，比如說純淨水的問題。”
The little campus village has a low-pressure, low-cost water purifier capable of creating enough drinking water for 3,000 people a day. Student Linstead points to solar panels on the roof of a pre-packaged shelter, and explains they can be used to re-charge cell phones.
在這個小小的難民村裏，有一個低壓、低成本的水淨化器，能夠淨化供3千人每天使用的飲用水。林斯特德指着一個庇護所屋頂上的太陽能板解釋說，這些太陽能板可以用來給手機充電。
"So what most people don't know is, whenever you go over to these countries like Kenya and places like that, that cell phones are actually a huge, huge commodity," he says. "While these people almost have no money, they all have cell phones but they don't have any electricity to charge them."
他說：“大多數人不知道，在肯尼亞這樣的國家，手機是一種非常昂貴的商品。人們雖然沒有錢，但是有手機，問題是，他們沒有電給手機充電。”With the solar panels, now they will.
有了太陽能板，他們就可以給手機充電了。
The goal is not just to save lives, but to change them. The Institute hopes some entrepreneurs might earn some money with these ideas. One of the structures in the SMU village was built with bricks made mostly from recycled plastic bags.
研究所的目標不僅僅是拯救生命，它還希望一些企業家能夠通過這些構想掙到錢。難民村裏一個建築是用主要由回收塑料袋製作的磚頭建造的。
They're held together with heavy wire. Harvey Lacey, father of two college-aged sons, including one here at SMU, heard about this project and contributed his invention. It’s a heavy-duty, hand-crank compactor that anybody can use to form the big bricks he calls Ubuntu Blox.
它們被很粗的鐵絲連接在一起。哈維·萊西有兩個上大學的兒子，其中一個就讀南部衛理公會大學。他聽說這個計劃後，貢獻了他的發明。這是一個手動壓縮機，任何人都可以用它來製作那種大磚頭。
"The beautiful things about this here, these blocks right here weigh less than two pounds. They're very, very stiff, alright? These things can go for many generations of housing," says Lacey, who is giving the design of his product away. Anybody can follow his online plans to build the compactor that turns plastic bags into bricks.
萊西說：“這個發明妙就妙在，這種磚頭重量不超過兩磅，但是卻非常結實。”萊西信任自己的產品，而且免費贈送他的設計。任何人都可以按照他在網上提供的方法制造壓縮機，把塑料袋變成磚頭。
On this warm day, it’s cool inside the mud-plastered Ubuntu Blox hut, thanks in part to the thick plastic insulation. Lacey says it will soon be tested by scientists for its durability and insulating properties. Kenyan architect Ronald Omyonga, visiting the global village before returning to his native Africa, says his country is full of these recyclable bags that now are trash. But with Lacey’s design, he says that litter could be transformed into safe, affordable housing. He dreams of other benefits too.
棚屋裏很涼爽，這部分要歸功於厚厚的塑料絕緣層。萊西說，它的耐用度和絕緣性將很快得到一些科學家的測試。肯尼亞建築家羅納德·奧姆永加在回國前參觀了這個難民村。他說，肯尼亞到處都是被當作垃圾丟棄的的塑料袋，通過萊西的發明，可以把這些垃圾轉變成安全的、廉價的住房。他還夢想能得到其它的好處。
"I look at the Harvey Lacey hut, as a means of creating jobs," says Omyonga. "And cleaning the environment, but turning waste into something that can form houses, not just for the poor."
奧姆永加說：“我把用萊西的發明建造的棚屋看作是創造就業的一個途徑。清潔環境，使廢物變成建造房屋的材料，這些好處不僅僅是給窮人的。”
