2023 Davidson Fellow Renee Wang was featured in the article, Teen creates Rubik’s cube-inspired tiny home to help those experiencing homelessness.
When she was growing up in La Jolla, California, it was impossible for Renee Wang to ignore the rising homelessness crisis in her hometown.
“In my home state of California there are over 160,000 unhoused people, both sheltered and unsheltered,” Wang told The 74. “In San Diego, only half the homeless people can be accommodated by the existing shelter system.
So, at just 16 years old, Wang proposed a solution: creating tiny homes that were easy to construct, install, and replicate on a massive scale.
Her source of inspiration? LEGO bricks and Rubik’s cubes.
Her model — which she dubbed Rubix — is built to be “cheaper, faster, and far more efficient” than comparable tiny home products.