Our Vision
When it comes to structures, the most basic shelters are those that exist in nature: either the protection of a forest canopy or a natural rock cave. Next are shelters made of wood branches, animal skins, stone, mud, straw, or a combination of these materials relying mainly on gravity to support their own weight. They supply resistance to environmental forces such as wind, snow, and rain. Much further down the road come more modern and exponentially more complicated systems made with iron, steel, reinforced concrete, masonry, and combinations of these materials.
The most compelling reason to consider wood for the construction of smaller structures remains the fact that wood is a renewable resource that requires a minute amount of energy and pollution to produce when compared with concrete, masonry, steel, or other modern materials. Plywood is an even more efficient form of wood as it can be derived from younger and smaller trees and engineered to produce the specific structural properties required for the various intended applications.
When one reads an article about green construction, green housing, or sustainable development, the typical proposed systems include mass quantities of concrete, steel, fiberglass, and plastics. If the manufacturing energy requirements and the environmental impacts of these materials are considered in the overall scheme of the project, there is almost no comparison to the AVAVA system of construction. Plywood takes only small trees, steam, and glue to manufacture and the products can be made highly resistant to water, fire, and pest damage with the addition of a few fairly benign chemicals.
The People
Michael Kozel brings 30 years of experience to the table as an artist, architect, and planner, raised and trained in Germany by some of the great thinkers of the late 20th century. In addition to the current patent application, he has developed other unique connections and framing systems with vast architectural uses.
David Wilson has a history of moving beyond the boundaries of simple civil and structural engineering into creating effective and creative solutions for problems affecting housing and habitation. Wilson also has a strong commitment to community service and has participated in post disaster engineering and rebuilding efforts around the Bay Area. Early on in his career, he spent much of his spare time researching techniques for creating fast, economical and practical disaster recovery shelters using such materials as tents and recycled cargo containers.