Canada’s own Viceroy Homes Ltd., a leading international manufacturer of quality pre-engineered homes, has answered the call from Japan to provide temporary housing for earthquake and tsunami victims.
The company has already delivered 160 homes to Japan and expects to deliver hundreds more in the coming weeks.
Viceroy is among several companies answering the call from the Japanese government for at least 30,000 temporary homes to help Viceroy Homes expects to deliver hundreds of temporary homes to Japan to provide housing for earthquake and tsunami victims. shelter thousands who have lost everything in the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in early March.
“Japan has been a very important market for our company for more than 15 years,” says Chris Lindal, Viceroy’s chief operating officer. The company has been building pre-engineered homes with its Japanese partner Selco Homes for about 17 years and it is through this connection that they got involved in providing some of the desperately needed temporary housing.
In 1999 Viceroy received Canada’s Exporter of the Year award from the federal government for its success in Japan.
“We have a lot of experience and connections in that market,” Lindal says. “And when the call came to supply these temporary housing units we went to work immediately and then submitted our bids.” Lindal says Viceroy used its knowledge, expertise and experience in the Japanese market to design the homes according to the specifications provided ramped up production very quickly.
Japan is usually an exporter of eergency housing units, Lindal ays, but the recent disaster has dmaged their production facilities and supplies and they had to call on others for assistance.
“Their capacity has been impacted by the earthquake, so the more traditional homebuilding industry is being called on to fill the gap,” he says. “I understand the 160 homes we already sent have just arrived in Japan and we are bidding on contracts to supply additional units, potentially more than 1,000, but even that number can change as their needs keep rising.”
The temporary housing units manufactured specifically for Japan are very simple, 30-square-meter buildings with 2x4 wood frames and pre-fabricated panels. There is a living room, one bedroom, one bathroom and a kitchen. A curtain can be used in the living room to create another bedroom.
All the fixtures will be supplied locally. Each home comes in sections and will be assembled onsite. The initial production run was manufactured at Viceroy’s 120,000 sq. ft. Richmond, B.C. facility because it is closest to the affected area. However, Lindal said future construction might well require use of its 150,000 sq. ft. Ontario facility as well.
All homes are manufactured in Canada with Canadian materials.
About Viceroy Homes
Founded in 1956, Viceroy Homes is Canada’s largest and oldest manufacturer of quality preengineered homes with facilities in Ontario and British Columbia. The company employs 400 and exports homes to more than 35 countries worldwide.
