When a 7.7 magnitude earthquake struck central Myanmar in March 2025, the devastation left Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, in ruins. Just 15 kilometers from the epicenter, however, 26 bamboo houses built by Housing NOW, a humanitarian initiative by Yangon-based architecture studio Blue Temple, remained intact. Originally designed for families displaced by conflict, these low-cost modular homes became a powerful demonstration of resilience, surviving one of the strongest earthquakes in the country’s history.
HOUSING
The houses are built using a structural system of bundled small-diameter bamboo, an undervalued and abundant local material. By interlocking the bundles into a geometric frame, the design distributes seismic loads effectively, ensuring stability during natural disasters. Each unit takes less than a week to build and costs between $1,000 and $1,300, the equivalent of a smartphone. Construction involves local families, guided by Housing NOW’s technical team, reinforcing both community participation and knowledge-sharing.
This event has become the ultimate proof of concept for Blue Temple’s approach: architecture that is technically rigorous, affordable, and deeply connected to its context. Over the past five years, Housing NOW has developed three complementary strategies: the bamboo modular prefab units now tested against both earthquakes and strong winds; a DIY Bamboo Manual, with 500 copies distributed to empower communities to build independently; and a cash-for-shelter program, where technical advice and structural guidance help upgrade self-built homes. Together, these approaches form a flexible toolkit for dignified housing in fragile contexts.
The project reflects Blue Temple’s broader philosophy, which merges computational design with humanitarian practice. Founded in 2016, the studio has consistently worked at the intersection of advanced design methods and field-based construction. In Myanmar’s challenging environment, their work demonstrates how architecture can be adapted to address urgent needs while maintaining cultural and material relevance.
Housing NOW has now delivered 79 units across the country, each constructed in just seven days. Beyond providing shelter, these homes offer a sense of dignity, safety, and permanence to families who have endured displacement and instability. International recognition, including the MIT Solve Award, Good Energies Prize, UNICEF Innovation30, and the Nikkei Asia Award, has further cemented the project’s role as a pioneering example of humanitarian architecture.
In the face of conflict and natural disaster, Housing NOW shows that innovative architecture can deliver resilience at scale. By reimagining bamboo as a structural material, Blue Temple has proven that sustainable, community-driven housing can withstand catastrophe while costing no more than the devices people carry in their pockets.
