bioclimatic shelter for disasters

Disasters seem to come in rows. It was Haiti some weeks ago, then Chile, now Turkey... In the past two decades more than 200 million people have been affected every year by natural disasters (earthquakes, floods, landslides, droughts, wildfires, tropical cyclones and associated storm surges, tsunami and volcanic eruptions...), causing the loss of human lives and the destruction of economic and social infrastructures, as well as serious damage to the natural ecosystems.

I am showing here an architect’s proposal for a temporary bioclimatic shelter that utilizes renewable energy sources in order to satisfy the urgent housing needs deriving from disasters. It intends to become a viable solution to be quickly and economically set up while respecting the environment. This project was the winning entry of a competition promoted by the Work Programme on Architecture and Renewable Energy Sources (ARES) of the International Union of Architects, for which I was a jury member.

It establishes, as a starting point, three reference images: the cube, for its symbolic connotation and neutral proportionality, the tent, the most frequently used emergency shelter, and the accordion, for its ability to vary its dimension and proportion.

And it is made of four parts:

A multifunctional unit that contains the sanitary installation and the kitchen, both supplied by water collected in a tank located on the top of the unit.

Two rigid ends, made of cement bonded particle board panels fixed on a metallic structure, that accommodate the bed floors
and, when transported, the main floor of the shelter, the tent and
the multifunctional unit.

The photovoltaic panels, used as energy suppliers, light shadows or water heating elements, depending on the weather conditions.

The folding canvas linking the rigid parts and made of two layers, one exterior and one interior to prevent condensation, with a thin rock wool insulation in-between.

The basic module can accommodate a family of four and there are a series of variations to roof up to twelve people. The proposal suggested even further variations in order for the shelter to become a Medical Center, a Community Center, a School, a Storage facility or even a Power plant. The overall purpose is to create a viable settlement that can either be completely autonomous or integrate to the remaining parts of any existing urban infrastructure.