When the flood waters recede and the firefighters have put out the flames, infrastructure is often a casualty of the disaster. It's a problem that's becoming all too common, both in the U.S. and abroad, and a team of Penn State students have a solution with the Apparatus X.

The crew from PA designed Apparatus X to be a mobile headquarters packed to capacity with renewable electricity, clean water, power tools, and, most importantly, people ready to teach victims and volunteers how to use it all. The result is a self-sustained, infinitely versatile box of resources—an “adaptable tool trailer” according to the designer, Aaron Wertman.

"It is a mobile tool trailer that empowers people through building," says Wertman.

What Wertman set out to create is a place for displaced homeowners to do the dirty work themselves. A fire-damaged dining room table could be repaired given the means. But Wertman believes it could do more than just provide a place for DIYers to get some work down before the insurance check comes in. The work and education required to build new homes from repurposed material will compensate for the restrictive pricing that comes with building homes from scratch.

The original trailer that will become Apparatus X. Image: Aaron Wertman

Wertman's prototype started as a dilapidated Walter White trailer that the team disassembled into a four-wheeled blank canvas. They set aside everything from the sheet metal to the ancient appliances so they could reuse as much of the original trailer as possible.

Before thinking about how the Apparatus X will help rebuild homes, Wertman and his team had to make it livable–and mobile. The final model will have roof-mounted solar panels that will power to an array of batteries hidden beneath the floors. Rain, well water, and even water from creeks and rivers will pass through on-board filtration and stored in a tank, feeding the trailer's faucets, showers, and toilet.

Additionally, the team had to come up with some innovative mechanical solutions to ensure that the Apparatus X would perform while on the go. For one, the storage compartments for the tools will be extremely heavy. To make sure the trailer is both stable and street legal, “We had to set the tool bank on a track system down the center of the trailer so it could be shifted over the axles for even weight distribution while moving," says Wertman.

Besides acting as a fully functional shelter, Apparatus X will fold open to provide work surfaces and shade. Image: Aaron Wertman

Though the trailer will function as a self-contained habitat, it’s greater purpose is to facilitate the construction and repair of disaster-damaged buildings by using repurposed materials. To show how effectively one can construct new things with found materials, Wertman is building Apparatus X the same way.

“We have a stack of 2x4s from a homecoming float,” Wertman says. Using the wood, the trailer's original sheet metal, and other donated supplies they're breathing new life into the ancient Winnebago. And Wertman and his team are documenting the entire process so they can both recreate the Apparatus X and show others how to do it themselves.

“My philosophy is learning by doing,” Wertman says. “We have some rules about sizing, where the water tanks go, where the batteries go, but when it’s actually built there will be some changes. It is designed, but designed to a point of flexibility that allows for adaptable design.”

But it's not just about the availability of tools, shade, and a place to cut wood. The Apparatus X needs to be staffed by skilled teachers who can encourage displaced homeowners.

Wertman admits that “80 percent of the people we work with could have something built for them,” he says. “But others will walk away with skills.”

In August 2014, after construction finishes and Wertman has graduated, he'll be able to put the Apparatus X to the test. The team will bring their rolling repair shop to the Ninth Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana where he'll be working with the Lower 9th Ward Village nonprofit to see if his creation can fill the void left by state and federal agencies after Hurricane Katrina.