Habitat for Humanity Project - Mobile County, Alabama 

As a part of its involvement in the Gulf Coast, FAS teamed up with Habitat for Humanity in a two part project to build, monitor and study CSIP houses in comparison to traditional stick built construction. The initial phase of the project focused on the design and construction of two CSIP houses in Mobile, Alabama. By doing this, FAS was able to identify and address issues of constructability involved in CSIP building projects, as well as provide two families with spacious, energy efficient, affordable housing.

Upon completion of the first phase of the project, FAS is continuing its partnerships with Habitat for Humanity to construct four more homes, all located in Citronelle, Alabama. Each home will feature different building technologies. One home will be built from CSIPs, while the other three will be built from more traditional building systems: OSB (oriented strand board) SIPs, steel-stud framing, and ICF (Insulated Concrete Form). Each will be identical in design, allowing for a comparative analysis to demonstrate the benefits of each building system. Both FAS and Habitat believe that this comparative project will not only help showcase the advantages of CSIP technology, but will also provide a great opportunity to research alternative construction methods (complete with energy and performance ratings).

This demonstration project will not only help FAS gather more data on the performance of CSIP building systems, but will also help guide decisions by Habitat for Humanity International to consider alternative construction and green materials across the US and Internationally. It is the hope of FAS that this forward progress will provide new information leading towards newly viable, affordable, and energy-efficient building technologies for the benefit of our national housing future.