Fold a shelter

Fold a Shelter

Fold-a-Shelter: a stockpileable, flat pack easy to assemble shelter in solid board that meets and exceeds shelter center / sphere standards. Multiple Fold-a-shelters can be joined to build a larger structure.

Design / Concept Title: Fold-a-Shelter
Designer(s): Taina Flink, Isabell Oskarsson, Jessica Olsson, Lotta Skoog, Katarina Westström

Contact:

Katarina Westström
Mail: weststrom(at)gmail.com

Taina Flink
Mail: tainaflink(at)gmail.com

Jessica Olsson
Mail: i.jessica.olsson(at)gmail.com

Isabell Oskarsson
Mail: isabell(a)student.chalmers.se

Lotta Skoog
Mail: lottaskoog(a)gmail.com

URL: http://www.emergencyhousing.se/library/designconcepts/foldashelter
Project: Emergency Housing – Transitional Structures
University: Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden
Date: May 29, 2009

Fold-a-Shelter: a stockpileable, flat pack easy to assemble shelter in solid board that meets and exceeds shelter center / sphere standards. Multiple Fold-a-shelters can be joined to build a larger structure.

Fold a shelter

Living area: 13m2
Estimated sales price: $180
Standards: Shelter Center / Sphere compliant
Material: Solid board by Smurfit Kappa
Next step: field testing and detail solutions

Fold a shelter is a hard panel shelter of a paper based material. The basic structure of the shelter is a hexagon with four corners at the same level and two opposite corners somewhat higher. On top of this there is a V-shaped roof. The shelter has two doors and two windows and is possible to arrange in smaller groups to make the living area bigger or smaller communities. By using the advantages of paper material, that by folding it you make it stronger, the package, in which the shelter is delivered, is flat and the amount of pieces are minimized.
To build a shelter out of a paper based material it needs to be water resistant, UV-resistant, light and strong. The material we have chosen to work with and recommend is a material called solid board. It is manufactured and developed by a company called Smurfit Kappa.
The wall is delivered as one piece that is folded like an accordion and folded out to its hexagonal shape on site. The pre-glued bearing poles are integrated into the wall structure and are found in all six corners. For the corners to stay in the desired position they are also taped on the outside. At the bottom edge there will be two folds to further stabilize the structure by locking the walls, further there are two holes on each flap for anchoring the shelter to the ground with tent screws.
The roof beam will rest on the two highest wall poles and partly, together with the walls, support the roof. The roof consists of eight pieces that will be mounted together on site and the joints are taped on both sides. This will result in two large roof pieces, overlapping each other on the ridge. The roof will stick out a little bit on each side but along the lower wall sections it will be folded down and taped to the wall. To simplify the assembly instructions, the shelter is color coded. Red parts should be folded away and blue parts should be taped over. When assembled the whole shelter should not have more than one color, making it easy to check with a quick glance if the shelter is correctly assembled.