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Teen Engineer Plans To Live In His Own Tiny Home For A Year To Prove It Could Help People Without Shelter
An 18-year-old engineering student in Ontario is taking product testing much further than most inventors ever would.
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After building a wooden electric car and earning a major scholarship, Ribal Zebian is now preparing to live inside a fiberglass modular home he designed himself, hoping it could become part of a faster and more dignified response to homelessness.
A Student Inventor Turns Toward Housing
Ribal Zebian, a student from London, Ontario, first drew attention after building an electric car out of wood. That project helped him earn a $120,000 scholarship and established him as a young inventor willing to take on unusual engineering challenges.
Now, his attention has shifted to a problem much closer to home. Concerned by homelessness in his city and the wider cost of housing, Zebian began developing a modular home made from fiberglass material.
Currently studying engineering at Western University, Zebian is not presenting the project as a polished product ready for mass rollout. He is preparing to test it in the most direct way possible: by living in one of the units himself for a full year.
The idea is simple in principle, but difficult in practice. If the home can be built quickly, withstand Canadian weather, and remain livable over time, it could offer a lower-cost shelter option while communities work on longer-term housing solutions.
The Home Is Built Around Speed And Replication
Zebian’s modular design uses fiberglass panels and thermoplastic polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, foam. He chose those materials because they can support fast construction while still allowing for strength and repeatable design.
“With fiberglass you can make extravagant molds, and you can replicate those,” Zebian told CTV News. “It can be duplicated. And for our roofing system, we’re not using the traditional truss method. We’re using actually an insulated core PET foam that supports the structure and structural integrity of the roof.”
That repeatable structure is central to the concept. A home that can be copied from molds and assembled quickly may be easier to scale than a custom-built unit.
Zebian also wants the design to avoid the stripped-down look often associated with emergency housing. He has framed the project as a shelter that can be practical without feeling careless.
“Essentially, what I’m trying to do is bring a home to the public that could be built in one day, is affordable, and still carries some architecturally striking features,” he said to the London Free Press. “We don’t want to be bringing a house to Canadians that is just boxy and that not much thought was put into it.”
That design priority matters. Temporary housing still has to be humane, especially for people already living through instability.
He Plans To Test It Through All Four Seasons
Beginning in May 2026, Zebian plans to move into one of the modular homes and live there for a full year. The goal is to see how the unit performs through summer, fall, winter, and spring.
“We want to see if we can make it through all four seasons- summer, winter, spring, and fall,” said Zebian. “But that’s not the only thing. When you live in something that long and use it, you can notice every single mistake and error, and you can optimize for the best experience.”
A year inside the unit could reveal issues that are easy to miss in drawings or short demonstrations. The test may show whether the structure is comfortable, durable, and practical for daily use.
Key areas to watch include:
- Temperature control: The unit must handle both summer heat and winter cold safely.
- Moisture management: Small spaces can develop condensation and dampness if airflow is poor.
- Privacy and security: A shelter has to feel stable, not just enclosed.
- Maintenance needs: Low-cost housing only works if repairs are realistic.
- Daily comfort: Storage, lighting, ventilation, and layout can shape whether a unit feels livable.
This is what makes the project more than a concept. Zebian is not only asking others to consider the design. He is choosing to experience its flaws and limitations himself.
Canada’s Housing Pressures Give The Project Urgency
Zebian’s idea is gaining attention because it speaks to a wider crisis. Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada reported that nearly 60,000 people were identified as experiencing homelessness on a single night in 2024 across 74 participating communities. The same report said homelessness captured by those point-in-time counts has nearly doubled over six years.
That figure is not a complete annual total. Point-in-time counts can miss people who are couch surfing, staying outside the service system, or temporarily hidden from view.
Even with that limitation, the trend helps explain why fast shelter models are drawing interest. Communities need immediate options for people without safe housing, while larger policy reforms move more slowly.
Modular Housing Has Promise, But Not A Perfect Path
Zebian has not presented his modular home as a full solution to homelessness. That distinction is important.
A small modular unit can offer shelter, privacy, and protection from the weather. It cannot replace permanent affordable housing, health support, income support, or broader policy change.
Research on homelessness has repeatedly shown that housing stability often depends on more than a physical structure. An article described it as a randomized controlled trial of Housing First across five Canadian cities, pairing housing with health and social supports for people experiencing homelessness and mental illness.
Modular construction also faces practical barriers. A systematic review in the journal Sustainability identified 75 deterrents to using modular construction in affordable housing, including economic, regulatory, technical, administrative, and market challenges.
Those challenges do not erase the value of Zebian’s project. They show what comes next if the prototype succeeds: approvals, financing, land access, manufacturing, and public support.
Why The Story Is Resonating
Part of the appeal is Zebian’s age. At 18, he is not waiting for a perfect career moment to work on a difficult public problem.
But the stronger point is his willingness to test the home personally. The yearlong experiment gives the project a level of accountability that many prototypes never face.
It also reframes invention as service. The goal is not simply to build something eye-catching. It is to test whether engineering can offer a practical bridge for people who need shelter now.
The story has gone viral because it gives people something concrete to hold onto in a crisis that often feels too large to solve. A single modular home will not fix homelessness, but it can challenge the assumption that every response has to move slowly.
What Happens Next
The real test begins when Zebian moves in. If the home holds up through a full year of daily life, he hopes to refine the design before approaching manufacturers.
There will still be questions about cost, safety standards, municipal approval, and long-term use. Those details will determine whether the idea can move beyond one prototype.
For now, Zebian’s project stands out because it treats shelter as both an engineering problem and a human one. It is a door that could open sooner, while the harder work of permanent housing continues.