Did you know that you can double the strength of a brick wall using nothing more than a bucket of water? Or that lightweight materials like wood, bamboo or lightweight steel can withstand an earthquake better than heavy materials like brick and stone?
Dr. Elizabeth Hausler knows — the daughter of a brickmason, she grew up building things. Now she’s a skilled brickmason herself and an earthquake engineer with a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2002 to 2003, she spent time in India’s quake-stricken state of Gujarat helping with the reconstruction as a Fulbright Scholar.
Hausler is also the founder and CEO of Build Change, a a nonprofit social enterprise that designs earthquake-resistant houses and teaches homeowners, builders, engineers and government officials how to build them.
“Over 70,000 people are living in safer homes because of our work,” Hausler says.
Key to her mission: a strongly held belief.
“Earthquakes don’t kill people,” Hausler says, “poorly built buildings do.”
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Piece Description
Did you know that you can double the strength of a brick wall using nothing more than a bucket of water? Or that lightweight materials like wood, bamboo or lightweight steel can withstand an earthquake better than heavy materials like brick and stone?
Dr. Elizabeth Hausler knows — the daughter of a brickmason, she grew up building things. Now she’s a skilled brickmason herself and an earthquake engineer with a Ph.D. in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. From 2002 to 2003, she spent time in India’s quake-stricken state of Gujarat helping with the reconstruction as a Fulbright Scholar.
Hausler is also the founder and CEO of Build Change, a a nonprofit social enterprise that designs earthquake-resistant houses and teaches homeowners, builders, engineers and government officials how to build them.
“Over 70,000 people are living in safer homes because of our work,” Hausler says.
Key to her mission: a strongly held belief.
“Earthquakes don’t kill people,” Hausler says, “poorly built buildings do.”
Broadcast History
None (Aired only as Housing Revolution podcast)
Transcript
PETER ARONSON: You’re listening to Housing Revolution — a series of interviews with innovators and revolutionaries from around the world who are working to make housing safer, more sustainable and better quality without significantly increasing costs. I’m Peter Aronson.
KIM GREEN: And I’m Kim Green. The past few years have been a bad time for earthquakes.
(EARTHQUAKE NEWS MONTAGE)
KIM: Turkey, Japan, Haiti, Sichuan — to name a few. More than 425 thousand people died in those temblors, and that’s just since 2008. But was it the earthquakes that actually killed those people? Or was it something else? Something preventable?
PETER: Our next guest, Dr. Elizabeth Hausler, believes earthquakes—
DR. ELIZABETH HAUSLER: Earthquakes don’t kill people—poorly built buildings do.
PETER: She should know. Hausler’s been building things her whole life. She loved playing with construction toys as a...
Read the full transcript
Musical Works
| Title | Artist | Album | Label | Year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | Headmint | Music for Corporations. | (None) | 2009 | 00:00 |
Additional Credits
Kim Green, co-host
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