Emergency Desert Shelter with rainwater harvesting capability

By Asmita Prasad

This Emergency Desert Shelter Concept by designer Timothy E. Bender is a compact temporary housing concept that is perfect for providing sustainable living solutions. The shelter is shaded in a Universal Corn bat Pattern (IJCP) Camouflage that is suitable for use in both wooded areas as well as desert and is approved by the U.S. military as a standard camouflage print for these areas. The USP of the design is its compact which enables it to be carried out to remote locations where traditional means of housing cannot be set up. Read more...

Did you feel that earthquake? Do you have a plan?

Posted by kstohr on Aug 23, 2011,  Architecture for Humanity

As an earthquake rocked the Eastern seaboard today, it's another reminder to take stock in each and everyone of our communities of our preparedness planning for a major natural or man-made disaster.

It's not just about designing and warehousing shelter. If you are concerned about your community, have you thought about the following:

1) Do you have a plan, but more importantly, do you have the financial instruments in place that will allow the plan to be executed? Those take longer to setup than any other aspect of disaster reconstruction and are too often ignored.

2) Where will you house your residents? Preparedness is knowing where you are going to build transitional shelter and executing planning and zoning permits, easements, etc. in advance.

3) Does your community have a clear understanding of how many it may need to shelter? It’s not 100% of your population...

Most disaster preparedness focuses on evacuation and immediate response, that addresses only half of the issues that arise. NYC and NY State through Office of Emergency Management worked with our local New York City chapter to start thinking through some of these longer-term housing issues. Only city i know of that is working to develop a housing strategy that truly addresses the dense population of an urban environment-- in advance of catastrophe.

Read more...

'Just add water' instant shelters

An emergency shelter which can be set up in 40 minutes as a solid concrete structure will be made in south Wales after winning worldwide interest. Read more

GREEN TRANSITIONAL SHELTER - DESIGN OPTION

Every year natural disasters and man made conflicts displace millions of people all over the world.
Often the financial and material aids received are insufficient to address their basic needs. Recovering damaged sites left with debris require lot of manpower, energy and take years to rebuild. In the mean while people live in temporary shelter for years waiting to return to their home. Impact on the psychology of the displaced poeple are immence. If they are given a chance to get involved in the process of rebuiling, they would start recovering gradually.

Emergency shelter is temporary and intended just to provide shelter for survival. Transitional implies shelter is longer–term and gives space to carry out livelihood activities than just surviving. The Transitional shelters will be altered, added gradually with the availability of financial and matrrial aid. Transitional shelters also makes less burden on the donors, as they do not have to provide large sum of aid at once but gradually transfer aid as the funds becomes available.

This post it the continuation of the post dated 12/04/2008 Green Basic Transitional Shelter, in search of answers to "Is it possible to provide a GREENER, COMMUNITY INVOLVED, IMMEDIATE transitional shelter response?"

Solution addresses the following;
• Less need of skilled labor
• Easy constructability
• Less new material
• Low cost
• Modules - flexibility in design
• Eco friendly solution
• Empowerment of people

The base is similar concept to gabion walls. The above ground structure out of timber pallets and the base is made out of pieces of bricks, stones stacked in chicken mesh cells. The steps to build the shelter is shown in the earlier post dated 12/04/2008 Green Basic Transitional Shelter.

Data is from "Monster of Design 2008" submission by Charmalee Jayawardena. Photo credit : Charmalee Jayawardena

GREEN BASIC TRANSITIONAL SHELTER ?

WALLS; POST CONSUMER RECYCLE MATERIAL Salvaged Stone, brick, concrete from damaged buildings.

WALL CELL; POST CONSUMER RECYCLE MATERIAL Steel mesh contains 90% recycle material .

FLOORING; POST CONSUMER RECYCLE MATERIAL 48’x48” timber pallets from pallet yards

ROOFING; POST CONSUMER RECYCLE MATERIAL 48’x48” timber pallets from pallet yards

Steps of building the shelter as follows;

Hexagonal wire netting (chicken mesh) woven with quality steel offers good corrosion resistant, flat surface & firm structure.
Available in easily transportable 78" width rolls.

Measuring and cutting of the mesh to predetermined measurements to create 2'6" high 2'6" deep 4'6" wide cells.

Panels will be distributed among the displaced families.

Mesh folded into cells in their home site. Families will help one another to rebuild their shelters.

Cells will be laid on the site, where the walls will be. Stacking the cell with pieces of stones, bricks and concrete etc. salvaged from site. Note: Concept similar to "Gabion wall construction"

Closing lid of cell and tying edges with leftover wire mesh. Once the bottom row of cells are stacked and closed, second row of cells will be stacked on top of the bottom row. Next the cells will be stacked with stones, bricks etc materials salvaged from the site.

completed cells stacked and created the base of the shelters

Timber pallets(48”x48”) salvaged from pallet yards will be distributed among families to add above grade structure and finishing to complete the shelter.

Data is from "Monster of Design 2008" submission by Charmalee Jayawardena. Photo credit : Charmalee Jayawardena

“TRANSITIONAL" AS OPPOSED TO "TEMPORARY"

According to “Protracted Refugee Situations” UNHCR, June 2004, the average duration of major refugee situations has increased from 9 years (1993) to 17 years (2003).

Emergency shelter is temporary and intended just to provide shelter for survival. Often the financial and material aids received are insufficient to address their basic needs. Recovering damaged sites left with debris require lot of manpower, energy and take years to rebuild.

Creating transitional shelters which are more long term, gives space to carry out livelihood activities than just surviving.

Is it possible to provide a GREENER, COMMUNITY INVOLVED, IMMEDIATE transitional shelter response?

Data is collected from "Design like you give a damn" book Habitat for Humanity. Photo credit : Ambassador Airlines

ALARMING NUMBERS

UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates 9,200,000 refugees in the world in 2004 published in “2004 Global Refugee Trends” UNHCR, June 2005.
2004 there were 25,000,000 internally displaced persons [IDP] in at least 49 countries, as per “Refugees by numbers” UNHCR, June 2005.

The average duration of major refugee situations has increased from 9 yrs (1993) to 17 yrs (2003) “Protracted Refugee Situations.” UNHCR, June 2004 .
Each time a catastrophe happens people get overwhelmed, and rise to help reach out for people in need. But however much we help the statistics leaves us baffled.

Can we outreach continuously as a community of designers/builders?

Data is collected from "Design like you give a damn" book Habitat for Humanity. Photo credit : Ambassador Airlines