When people find themselves in dire straits due to natural disaster or displacement through conflict, a well designed and rapidly delivered emergency relief shelter can make the difference between life and death. Gizmag highlights some of the more innovative emergency shelters we've come across.
- Emergency shelters pose a particularly tricky challenge for designers and architects, as a successful model needs to take into consideration such concerns as delivery, speed of construction, durability, and cost.
The following disaster shelters range from concept renders to real units that people are living in right now. They also vary between a very simple and basic hut, to more sophisticated designs that boast solar power and rainwater collection. Each one has the same aim though; to save lives with good design.
It's built from a metal frame, while the walls and roof are made of plastic panels, which sounds a little flimsy but is sure to be tougher than a tent. Ikea rates Better Shelter's lifespan at around three years and its interior comprises a total floorspace of 17.5 sq m (188 sq ft), made up of one large space.
The shelter sports a small roof-based solar panel. This powers an interior lamp that automatically switches on come nightfall. The solar power also feeds a USB port for charging small devices like smartphones. Ikea recently committed to delivering 10,000 Better Shelters to UNHCR (the UN's refugee agency).
Turkish design practice Designnobis conceived a concept shelter dubbed MTentative that could be delivered flat, and simply pop-up once in place, requiring very little assembly in the field.
Tentative features a fiberglass roof and floor, and weather-resistant tough fabric walls. This design would mean that Tentative's height is reduced from 2.5 m (8 ft) to just 30 cm (1 ft) when ready for transport, thus allowing up to 24 units to fit into a single semi-trailer truck.
Rapid Deployment Module
Massachusetts-based firm Visible Good has developed an emergency shelter that it says can be assembled in approximately 25 minutes by a couple of people without any tools.
Cleverly, Rapid Deployment Module (RDM) makes use of the box it ships in as a base for its structure. Its roof, meanwhile, is made from fabric, and the windows and doors are lockable. Each RDM is rated as suitable for 10 years.
Inside, RDM's walls can serve as whiteboards and the 30 sq-ft (12 sq-m) of available floorspace can be fitted with bunk beds and desks, or even medical equipment to serve as a clinic. RDM was put through its paces in the real world during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the U.S. Army was so impressed that it invested R&D money into the firm in a bid to create a more hardy version suitable for extreme climates.
The aptly-named Temporary Shelter in Nepal is a lot more basic than the above shelters, but paradoxically this can, in the right circumstances, be seen as a positive. Designed by Charles Lai and Takehiko Suzuki of Architecture for the Mass, the shelter can be constructed by local unskilled workers in three days.
The current prototype shelter cost just US$500 to build and was constructed using locally-sourced bamboo and locally-salvaged materials, including timber and metal sheets taken from damaged or demolished houses.
Along with the actual shelters, Lai and Suzuki also created a manual to aid locals in building their own shelter. The pair report that following their instructions, which can be downloaded or distributed on paper, unskilled workers should be able to erect a shelter within three days using local bamboo and whatever suitable cladding can be salvaged.
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