Page 333 - James Caan - The Real Deal

32 · Kashmir

The buildings that were needed had to fulfil so many criteria.
They had to be quick to construct because people were homeless.
The best design was a modular one: a basic two-room structure
that could be built quickly, with bathrooms and kitchens to be
added in the months to come. The architects thought of every-
thing: obviously the buildings had to be earthquake-proof, but the
angle of the roof also had to be just right so that it could hold
several feet of snow (too shallow and it would collapse with the
weight); they even calculated how many human beings it would
take to get the interior to a survivable temperature. There was no
heating in the basic modules, but the body heat of four humans
would get the internal temperature of each room to five degrees.
It would still feel like freezing to anyone in Britain, but it would
mean they would survive.
The houses had to be constructed with materials that were
readily available. The best way to get over the lack of manpower
was to prefabricate most of the components so that, once
delivered, they could be assembled by the villagers. Our man on
the ground was finding it hard to find a factory where the pieces
could be constructed. The only place that said they could take on
the work was in Lahore, which was 300 miles away. How were
we going to transport 100 houses 300 miles? We’d have to find
out about that later.
Within a few weeks it was clear that the factory was having
difficulty following the designs and it was all taking longer than it
ought to. Someone who understood the designs had to go out there
and oversee construction. A woman from Buro Happold called
Julia had just come back from one of her tsunami rebuilding
projects. She had five days before she had to be in New York, and
she offered to spend those five days in Lahore, so I bought her a
ticket and arranged everything for her on the ground.
With the construction now under control, Seema got back to me
about the transportation costs. They were more than we had

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