During the late 1990's, a group of Brisbane-based building industry people developed an awareness of the inadequacy in the standards of shelter being delivered to the survivors of natural & man-made disasters. 

A common desire emerged in the group to use their talents to help such people in real need. Having worked abroad in third-world and developing countries,  the need for more effective provision of basic resources to enable people to take ownership of their lives following calamity was clear to be seen. The idea of using simple technology evolved into development of various shelter and building system prototypes and engagement with organizations in the Aid Industry.

In 2007, MADDEL International Pty Ltd was formed and became the vehicle on which the humanitarian ideals, philosophies and enterprises of the founders' would be carried through to realization. 

The philosophy of MADDEL is to focus on the survivors of a disaster and on their propensity and capability to rebuild themselves.

As they come to realize the crippling blow the calamity has dealt them they become stripped of their dignity and self-worth and are reduced to a state of hopelessness. The absence of hope destroys their will to rebuild. 

MADDEL believes the key to survivors being able to turn their situation around is for them to quickly find themselves in an improved circumstance. In a dry, warm and secure space .Somewhere they can confidently stow what little may be left of their life. Somewhere that provides privacy in which they can mourn their losses and comfort each other.   Somewhere that provides tS It is vital to them that they are afforded the opportunity to build that secure,safe haven by their own sweat. They build their own shelter with their own hands. 

MADDEL believes that at the moment the structure is complete (and that happens in a matter of hours) and they step inside, a small ember of hope begins to glow and they are able to take ownership of their recovery. From there, shoots of self worth and eir work and their ership  dignity will begin to re-appear.

To this end, MADDEL has developed a range of shelters that provide the necessary resource that will satisfy the needs of the user and the logistical requirements of Aid Organizations, and provide a true instrument of hope for both the survivors and the Aid Organizations alike.

With housing and community infrastructure buildings being completed by the people, the follow-on element of the MADDEL package and philosophy is to resource the community into sustainable living development. To make available resources and to  work with the people to assess what skills and opportunities are latent within the community and how the people might nurture those skills and opportunities to develop a local micro-economy, and indeed, how that local economy might be expanded to become something more.