- hard contacting NGOs
- shelter is a social problem
- shelters that fold flat and pop up
- portable, easy to assemble, rapid deployment
- modular materials, general carpentry, makes flat materials into structural forms
- lots of homeless in America, but shipping tents wouldn't fix it
- lots of disaster-type natural events in the developed world, but most of the victims are in the developing world. This is an issue of economics.
- field hospital has to be operational 24 hours after a disaster
- in Pakistan it took 10 days
- UN recommends helping people build their own shelters
- how?
- can we ship information to help people understand how to build structures using what they have here
- answer: grid shells
- picture: it's a geodesic-looking array, made in the general form of a lattice weave. quite nice!
- modular materials
- conduit
- rebar
- bamboo or saplings
- simple joinery
- ping, cable ties, straps, scarf
- flat assembly
- lay down the sticks and lash them together in a pattern
- when you stand it up it turns into a shape that looks a lot like a geodesic dome
- looks damn cool!
- looking for testing with local materials and labor force - who can help him find a testing vehicle.