“Calamity-resilient” classrooms showcase use of container vans

DUMAGUETE CITY, Philippines — When a 7.2-magnitude earthquake and super typhoon Yolanda hit the Philippines in 2013, there was serious thinking and re-thinking happening in Silliman University.

One of the challenges that came out from these two of the Philippines’ worst natural disasters: Develop calamity-resilient structures. Two years later, Silliman showcases its first classrooms made of container vans.

Twelve 40-foot container vans were retrofitted into a three-classroom building, with one storage room at its second floor for the university’s Nutrition and Dietetics Department.

The additional floor was uniquely designed and the container vans carefully handled with fittings and fixtures that the entire structure appears to have been constructed in one piece, a media release said Wednesday.

The construction and the use of container vans underwent carefully considered studies made by a team of engineers from SU. Their focus was on the integrity of the structure and the container van’s capacity to absorb impact from both earthquake and strong winds.

SU envisioned replicating this building design, using container vans, in the construction of churches and school buildings in the communities that it assisted under its Continuing Calamity Response Program. Among the identified recipients was a barangay in Leyte province.

The container van classrooms were designed by a team from SU’s Buildings and Grounds Department, headed by Superintendent, Engineer Edgar Ygnalaga. Undertaking the construction was SolidACE Construction and Development Corporation.

In 2009, SU also pioneered the use of container vans for housing in Dumaguete City. It inaugurated the Silliman Mission Village, featuring a total of six two-bedroom housing units and a duplex. These units housed scholars of the United Evangelical Mission.

The Village was established with the support of the UEM, the same organization that designated SU as an International Center for Mission Studies in Asia.   (FREEMAN)