A Haitian-born Canadian singer has taken leave from a successful musical career to help the earthquake-displaced people in his homeland by spearheading the building of a village.

But Luck Mervil wants to build homes that will withstand any natural disaster by using retired shipping containers as the main building blocks.

Mervil plans to use 900 retrofitted containers to construct a new village fit for 5,000, erected on a parcel of previously uninhabited land near Leogane, a coastal city west of Port-au-Prince.

(READ the story from The Toronto Globe and Mail)

Visit his foundation's Vilaj Vilaj for photos and info (in French — and more design photos at Inhabitat.com)