GDS Architects

GDS Architects founder Charles Wee is the principal designer and inventor of LifeArk, a pre-fabricated, modular building system conceptualized to combat the global shortage of affordable housing stock. Capable of creating self-sustaining communities on both land and water, LifeArk is designed to be flexible and replicable. The system aims to provide a solution to hazardous living conditions caused by climate change, natural disasters, armed conflict, and economic disparity. Modules will be affordable, rapidly deployable and able to be assembled into different configurations that provide off-grid energy. LifeArk will use a new building material that ends the need for the comparatively costly and time-consuming methods of traditional construction, allowing for more housing for more people.

The project’s overall vision is that LifeArk will create jobs, increase school attendance, and provide food security, and sanitation by mobilizing and regenerating economic development and creating homes for displaced people worldwide. The concept is currently in the proof-of-concept stage, with four pilot projects planned for California.

GDS Architects founder Charles Wee is the principal designer and inventor of LifeArk, a pre-fabricated, modular building system conceptualized to combat the global shortage of affordable housing stock. Capable of creating self-sustaining communities on both land and water, LifeArk is designed to be flexible and replicable. The system aims to provide a solution to hazardous living conditions caused by climate change, natural disasters, armed conflict, and economic disparity. Modules will be affordable, rapidly deployable and able to be assembled into different configurations that provide off-grid energy. LifeArk will use a new building material that ends the need for the comparatively costly and time-consuming methods of traditional construction, allowing for more housing for more people.

The project’s overall vision is that LifeArk will create jobs, increase school attendance, and provide food security, and sanitation by mobilizing and regenerating economic development and creating homes for displaced people worldwide. The concept is currently in the proof-of-concept stage, with four pilot projects planned for California.