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"Breathe House" full scale prototype in a Virginia manufacturing plant. Image courtesy of Anselmo Canfora.

In 2010, reCOVER: Disaster Recovery Housing, a project from the University of Virginia’s School of Architecture won a Design Ignites Change Implementation Award. Since then, it has made incredible strides towards becoming an architectural powerhouse capable of facilitating low-cost and transitional housing in the wake of natural disasters across the globe. Two complete prototypes have been built of the Breathe House – a prefabricated structure designed with an emphasis on public health through special air ventilation systems.

UVA has established reCOVER, Inc., a new company that will help transform this academic research into a product and service and will soon be offering it to clients such as domestic and international governments. In addition to revitalizing local economies at the site of natural disasters, the “Breathe House” also intends to boost industry at UVA’s doorstep by organizing a consortium of companies in economically depressed areas of Virginia, that will manufacture the structures in the instance of a catastrophe.

reCOVER, Inc. represents a new kind of capitalism that values not only fiscal returns, but also social, environmental and public health. This project exemplifies the powerful potential – that Design Ignites Change supports – found at the intersection of academia, business, policy, social conscience and design.

Applications for the next round of Design Ignites Change Awards are due next week ( December 31st, 2011). For questions about applying contact Ansley Whipple at awhipple@worldstudioinc.com.