Feature: Small home, big relief: Turks build portable homes for quake victims

Two volunteers install shelves in a portable house designed to aid earthquake victims in Istanbul, Türkiye, April 13, 2023. The house is small but fully functional. A bathroom, a kitchen, and sleeping space are squeezed into 15 square meters to make the entire unit easy to transport, according to the builders. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

ISTANBUL, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Yildiz Tasdelen, a 65-year-old Turkish retiree, is among a batch of Istanbulites who have volunteered for the past two months in a suburb for building portable houses to shelter earthquake victims.

Varnishing the exterior of a tiny house at an expo center-converted construction site, Tasdelen said he came every day to help out with the work.

"I can say there is nothing I haven't done except for building the roofs," Tasdelen told Xinhua. "I've done many tasks, including interior painting, sanding, and cementing the ground."

On the fourth day of the disaster that had wreaked havoc in southern Türkiye in early February, a group of interior architects in Istanbul launched the project to provide ready-to-use houses for earthquake victims.

Immediately, hundreds of people and local businesses answered to the volunteering call on social media.

Tuyap fair convention and congress center provided ample space for building the houses until they were ready to be transported in bulk to quake-hit regions, where they would be put into use for resettlement. Many manufacturers supplied the necessary raw materials.

The house is small but fully functional. A bathroom, a kitchen, and sleeping space are squeezed into 15 square meters to make the entire unit easy to transport, according to the builders.

At its peak, some 500 people had worked around the clock in shifts on the construction site. "It is an incredible experience," Hamide Goksan, co-founder of the project, recalled.

"We knew there would be a massive demand for four-season insulated houses and shelters ... Tents and containers would go. After all, they were temporary solutions. We had to be thinking about something long-term," he said, pointing to the prefab houses.

Soon with local authorities' permission, the group installed the tiny houses on a 2.42-hectare area in Hatay, creating an "organic village" in the worst-hit province.

They planned to install a total of 100 homes in the first phase. "There are so much more to be built. The entire city vanished," she said, speaking of the severity of damage in the south.

Rahsan Kiris and her husband, Ayhan Kiris, were among the volunteers for construction since the beginning of the project.

"The first few days, we dealt with cleaning. We then realized that we could do anything," Rahsan told Xinhua. "Install kitchen cabinets, tile the ceiling, and nail the shelves," she counted.

"We do our best to make our people there have a good life," said Kiris.

A volunteer applies varnish to a portable house designed to aid earthquake victims in Istanbul, Türkiye, April 13, 2023. The house is small but fully functional. A bathroom, a kitchen, and sleeping space are squeezed into 15 square meters to make the entire unit easy to transport, according to the builders. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

A volunteer prepares building materials for houses designed to aid earthquake victims in Istanbul, Türkiye, April 13, 2023. The house is small but fully functional. A bathroom, a kitchen, and sleeping space are squeezed into 15 square meters to make the entire unit easy to transport, according to the builders. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

Hamide Goksan, co-founder of the Tiny House Project, speaks during an interview in Istanbul, Türkiye, April 13, 2023. The house is small but fully functional. A bathroom, a kitchen, and sleeping space are squeezed into 15 square meters to make the entire unit easy to transport, according to the builders. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)

Finished portable houses designed to aid earthquake victims are pictured in Istanbul, Türkiye, April 13, 2023. The house is small but fully functional. A bathroom, a kitchen, and sleeping space are squeezed into 15 square meters to make the entire unit easy to transport, according to the builders. (Photo by Omer Kuscu/Xinhua)