I Bought A Shelter have designed a customized emergency relief shelter that can be used for a range of shelter needs. The shelter is freely available for use by any organization seeking spacious and adaptable shelter for the Sichuan earthquake relief effort. Two of the team are in Chengdu, working with Sichuan Quake Relief to put up prototypes of their tents, and then source materials from local suppliers in preparation for larger orders as funding allows.
Tents situation
The tent is an inexpensive and environmentally responsible local “kit” made out of split bamboo poles and a low-tech durable plastic that can be constructed on-site into spacious temporary shelters to house six to twelve people for up to one year. The shelters have many benefits over conventional tents being cheaper, more spacious and better ventilated.
Very accommodating
Luke Cardew and Sam Keam were in a positive mood, one sporting a rather fetching wickerwork crash/safety helmet, and both showing a combination of tan and tiredness bestowed by putting up tents in mountainous regions, and then sitting in the open back of 3-tonne trucks as they bounce along the Sichuan track and road network.
When the earthquake struck on May 12th, Luke was travelling through France. A few days later, Sam texted him, saying, “China needs tents,” and the two were very soon together in Shanghai getting the prototype sorted. They have been in Chengdu for a week now, establishing contacts, assessing sites and sourcing materials for their project. The team had spent Sunday putting up their two first in situ tents in Baiguo Village, near Hanwang. From speaking to SQR volunteers and members of other NGOs present, the prototypes had been a success. The first tent took a few hours to assemble, and the second had been put up much more quickly.
SQR blog spoke to Luke and Sam at the Chengdu Bookworm on the evening of Monday 9th June 2008.
- SQR
- What have you been up to today?
- I Bought A Shelter
- Today we have been sourcing materials, including tarpaulin sheets and bamboo poles. We’ve been trying to get the right suppliers in place so that when we’re able to get a bulk order for a large number of shelters we can act quickly and get them over here. We’re aiming for an order of between 300 and 500 tents at the moment, based on funding we’ve got. There are some issues with purchasing tarpaulin here, as regional supplies of tarpaulin seem to have been snapped up, for obvious reasons. We might have to go back to our Shanghai supplier. We’re still working on the bamboo supplies, but bamboo shouldn’t be a problem.
- SQR
- You’ve mentioned that locally-available materials are a key part of the design.
- IBaS
- Bamboo is key as it’s a locally-sourced material, organic, low environmental impact and a fast-growing species.
- SQR
- What was the reaction to the two tents you put up on Sunday?
- IBaS
- We had been visiting the sites for the two days beforehand, so the local officials knew we were coming. Yesterday was fascinating. People have given a great response. Local people already know how to work with the materials, but they were very receptive to the design. They could see the value in it. The whole design was based on the way they build greenhouses here in China. There’s a clever difference to it. You build it in exactly the same way, except that as you build these tents, you pass one of the roof-supporting bamboo poles over another so that the roof structure is overlapping, making it much sturdier than the usual way these structures are assembled. As soon as we demonstrated this “overlap” step, there was literally this “whoo” moment (a sort of gasp of “oooh, that’s clever, isn’t it?”/”penny-drop” amazement – Ed.).
- SQR
- How has cooperation with Sichuan Quake Relief been?
- IBaS
- The people at Sichuan Quake Relief have been extraordinarily helpful. There’s a brilliant network of people. They’ve helped us so much. In particular they’ve been brilliant for logistics, with finding transport and volunteers, and helping us visit sites to assess where we might be able to work.
- SQR
- Luke, as an industrial designer, any thoughts on your design, now that you’ve seen the tent assembled in Sichuan?
- IBaS
- So far we are happy with the design. The tents are big and cheap and strong enough for the temporary short- to medium-term accommodation they are to provide. The ventilation needs to be slightly refined, but we are working on that.
- SQR
- How long will you be working on this project?
- IBaS
- If the project here gets too big, it’s an open source design, and the hope is for an NGO to manage the distribution of these tents. For more details about the tent design, visit our website or download a PDF of the shelter specifications sheet.
