31-year-old entrepreneur Fanyu Lin has initiated a new philanthropic enterprise called the World Home Foundation, an effort focused on providing homes to undeserved populations that include low income urban citizens, migrants, and refugees.

The new endeavor addresses a common phenomenon in reconstruction projects after natural disasters where low quality tents are provided to the impacted population as shelters while transitional housing is developed and built. "The shelters are often shacks, or low quality tents.  There are technologies such as 3D printing which could improve the conditions and speed of building significantly, essentially combining shelters and transitional housing. But to achieve that in reality, it requires people who know the technology, the willing capital, and the right organization to bring it to life," writes Fei Bo in a profile on Lin. 

Prior to launching World Home Foundation, Lin founded Fluxus, an architecture and construction technology company, and also worked with the United Nations.

The World Home Foundation will be a "pure philanthropic effort that will not look at return on investment," but will instead focus entirely on providing homes for populations in need. "An effective model is PPP, public private partnership. In many cases, governments contribute land, private partners contribute development and financial capacity, with architects providing designs, and innovators providing technologies. But there’s currently no industry standard, and it takes a lot of efforts to get all the pieces to the puzzle right," Bo reports Lin saying of the strategic thinking of the execution.

Currently, the foundation has partnered with The World Around Conference and is also in discussion with XPRIZE, a multi-million dollar competition for new technologies that was founded by Peter Diamandis. 

The World Home Foundation is expected to officially launch during the first quarter of 2021.