Disaster Shelter

For this Make It Temporary project, I have created a disaster shelter that can protect civilians from earthquakes. The structure is 100% made out of natural materials that are easy to obtain and recycle afterwards.

At the start of my research, I decided to use compressed earth blocks for walls, however earth bags came out to be a better option for this particular shelter. Since this shelter is designed to protect people from earthquakes, compressed earth blocks wouldn't be a great option. Earth blocks are too hard and can easily crack from the seismic energy of the earthquake, but earth bags can absorb that energy and keep the structure unharmed. For the bags to put the dirt in, I decided to use hemp fabric. Thatch is used as the roofing, since it is very light, which is mandatory for this type of shelter. Bamboo is used for extra reinforcement all around the structure.

I kicked off my project by researching about current major issues in the world. One of these issues, was natural disasters, which gave me an idea to create a disaster shelter that can be used by anyone in need. I decided to focus on one specific disaster which was earthquakes.

I started off my research by trying to find the best material that could be used as the walls for this shelter. As we already know, my first idea was to use compressed earth blocks, but later changed it to earth bags. Similarly I found the rest of the materials as explained before.

Earthquakes are almost impossible to predict and only last for a couple of minutes, so it would be impossible to build such shelter in the given time. So these shelter would have to be prebuilt. I decided to focus on one specific city who experience frequent earthquakes which was Japan, Tokyo. Afterwards I had to research certain areas to have these shelters placed.

These areas had to be where a lot of people are and easy to get to.

types of places that account for the two requirements are:

1. large public parks such as, Ueno Park and Yoyogi Park
2. bay areas such as, Odaiba and Tokyo Big Sight,
3. schoolyards and universities
4. major transport hubs such as, Shibuya, Shinjuku, and Tokyo stations.
5. high elevated areas in case of a flooding.

Until the incident occurs, these shelters could be used as storage spaces for whatever the area the shelters are at requires. Since these buildings are going to be up for a while until the earthquakes hit, it is a good idea to use hemp fabric for the bags instead of my original idea of using burlap. The reason for this is because Burlap doesn't last as long as hemp does.

As a high school student I was a little limited on how I would build this model. I used Revit, a program provided by my school to build a model. I used the little skills I had learned in my architecture class to best imitate the model of the structure.

1. Started by making a circular wall and added a little bit of texture.
2. Used extrusions to imitate the shape of bamboo sticks to use as supports.
3. Started building the roof using bamboo from the inside and covering it by thatch.

1. Identified the problem. Natural disasters such as earthquakes.
2. Researched building supplies. Earth, hemp, thatch, bamboo.
3. Identified that building such shelters takes time so it has to be prebuilt.
4. Researched possible sites for these shelters in a city with many earthquakes. Tokyo.
5. Built the model.

I apologize for not building a model that better represents my Idea. I was very excited and thought it was a good idea, but unfortunately I had to skip several weeks due to a recent loss of my father. I thank you for the opportunity and hope my ideas catch your eye!