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4th Grade Relief Architecture: Online Resources

Things to consider in your design.

Geography - is it flat, hilly, rocky, mountainous?

Weather - what will the high and low temperatures be?  Is it likely to rain or snow? Stormy or windy?

Materials - what is easily available and cost effective?

Time - how much time do you have to make these? Do they need to be ready to deliver and set up or will you have days or weeks to build them?

Shape - what will determine the shape of your shelter? Will it be your choice of materials or the weather or something else?

Delivery - How will your shelters be delivered to where they are needed? By truck? Air dropped from a plane? Will they already be stored in a warehouse ready to go?

Surviving Harvey - Reporter's Notebook

This is Emilie's dad's articles about the hurricane with pictures of the flooding and the work on their house.

Materials available to use for construction

Thinking about what materials to use in your design. Here are some things to consider:

  • Cost - Is it very expensive?
  • Strength - Is it strong or flimsy? Will it protect from weather and temperature?
  • Weight - How much does it weigh? Will it be difficult to move?
  • Availability - Is this material easy to purchase? Is there a lot of it already available?
  • Portability - Does it fold up small? Can it be stored easily? Is it big and bulky and difficult to move?

A tarp and a rope.

image from: survivalcommonsense.com

What kind of shelter can you build with a tarp and rope?

What would it be good for?

What things about it would not be so great?

Pictures

image from: http://thetinylife.com/tag/emergency-shelter/

image from: http://www.ecofriend.com/haven-solar-powered-emergency-shelters-can-be-stacked-for-easy-transport.html

 

image from: http://thetinylife.com/exo-house/

image of Khazer camp for displaced persons in Iraq from https://www.voanews.com/a/airbnb-teams-with-aid-agency-to-help-refugees/3710051.html

image of Cmax from www.asme.org

image inside IKEA's better shelter from: http://www.refinery29.com/2015/11/98431/ikea-syrian-refugee-better-shelter

Living Shelter - flat pack for southeast asia image from: https://www.designboom.com/architecture/wy-to-architects-living-shelter-natural-disasters-04-28-2016/

 

Move, sleep, stay - image from: http://dornob.com/portable-potential-mobile-urban-emergency-housing-idea/

 

High School students invent an emergency shelter they designed and developed in their Project Lead The Way engineering courses. The shelter is extremely lightweight yet durable and folds down into a compact kit to be assembled. The waterproof shelter includes a water purification system that uses carbon to kill bacteria.The cost of the shelter is approximately $600. Image from: http://engineeringeducation.typepad.com/

 

image from: precast concrete shelter

 

Design for Latticed aluminum shelters for coastal Peruvians. Image from: http://inhabitat.com/latticed-aluminum-shelters-to-help-coastal-peruvians-in-climate-emergencies/la-matriz-by-pontifical-catholic-university-of-peru-6/

Notice the re-purposed milk cartons for a foundation - strong, light and available!

Re-purposed paper tubes (left over from industrial uses), re-purposed milk crate foundation, light and waterproof tarp roofing.