Eco Factor: An eco-friendly shelter to provide accommodation when the nature turns it guns on our planet.
When disaster strikes, thousands are rendered homeless. Be it folks living in mansions or those lesser mortals existing in shanties, all face the same brutal fury of the environment. And for such times Rafael Smith has conceptualized an eco-friendly shelter dubbed the Uber Emergency Shelter. Large enough to house two to three rooms, I feel that this kinda refuge can be touted as the mansion of emergency housing options. Shipped in a compressed form, the Uber rises up without much effort. Crafted out of recyclable and reusable materials, this make-shift house for homeless is not only a basic structure with four walls and a roof. It can also be tweaked to accommodate essential cannot-do-without amenities too.
Stackable in nature, as the situation demands, enough room can be obtained by stacking two units together. The solar panels fitted on the roofs of these shelters can run a small refrigerator and illuminate the whole setup.
Simple to erect and easily transportable, Uber provisional dens will slither their way through natural calamities to the desired locations without much fuss.
The Dark Side: The stackable feature seems a bit shaky to materialize…especially in disaster-struck areas. However, the designer seems to be pretty sure about stacking them up to house more homeless folks. Also the solar panels on the roofs can be swapped with solar powered outer fabric that serves as exterior wall all round the shelter to can absorb sun’s energy from every angle.
Via: Tuvie
Comments
Hi Deepa. I had read and commented on this product in another blog written by our friend Atul.
I am sorry but the utility of this shelter looks to me more like a luxury camp than as a refuge shelter.
Sure its easy to transport and erect but will it be cheap? I believe canvas tents score as refuge shelters cause they can be easily transported and erected, they can withstand severe weather conditions and they are cheap... my thoughts.
Agreed that canvas tents have and will always be the most fundamental and time tested option for such shelters. But that cannot stop the designers from coming up with improved and comfortable concepts.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not against development of new designs and bettering what we already have, my point is this just does not fit in as a mass refuge shelter.
You have very correctly said that it can be touted as the ”mansion of emergency housing options”.
Tents may not be comfortable as accommodation but when its a question of survival, the type of accommodation hardly matters, espl since its cheap and can be very easily transported and erected.
With all due respect to the designer, I cannot see mass use of this product in disaster struck poor countries.
It can serve as shelters for longer durations like months or may be a year also. With places affected by disastrous earthquakes, such shelters can become luxurious homes. Till the time government erects concrete buildings to shelter such homeless victims.
It is no practical to think of living it out in tents for months together.
As far as eco points go, I think it seems quite eco-friendly and as you pointed out, future version can have solar lined roof walls instead of solar panels...and can even consider power generation by wind (in case used in high wind disaster area).
That’s exactly what I feel. What it does serve as, is a personal refuge in case of disaster.
Its like if I owe one of these and my house goes down due to natural calamity, I can set up my own comfortable temporary shelter and live in it very comfortably for how much ever long I want.
But I feel its impractical to think that NGOs and govt aid workers will come to setup individual luxury homes like this for people affected by disaster.