Pop-Up Modular Housing

The real issue was deciding who actually needs emergency shelter quick and easy. It isn't people in western culture that can be put up in schools and churches or go see relatives...it is the people who are in rural areas where their entire community is destroyed and they need somewhere to stay until they can get more permanent housing constructed.
These communities need a easy-set up/self deploying structure that will provide them with safety from the elements. With this in mind my team and I started brainstorming.

Brainstorm Session 1:
From this we took our tons of ideas and shrank them into a more organized way to view the options for how to make this device. We organized all the main functions and all the possibilities into a morphological chart.

Morphological Chart

From this we started prototyping tons of ideas including housing that used bungees to pop up the structure, to balls that could be rolled and then collapsed into half dome shelters and string pull mechanisms.
In the end we settled on what seemed to be the most reliable solution that met the needs of the victim. We really wanted something that required no tools to set up, very little human power to open and was reliable enough for more than a few days of relief. We wanted it to be something a family could stay in for a few months while they built their home back along with their community.
We created a 1/2 size model of the regularly 8 x 8 x7.5 ft structure to test its ability to collapse and ease of deployment. The model was made of out PVC, bolts, and bungee cords in the vertical members to help force the structure into its open state for easy deployment.

1/2 size Model Set up

1/2 Scale Prototype Collapsed
Collapsed Structure: Sketch by Danika Patrick

Starting to Open Structure: Sketch by Danika Patrick
3rd Step in Deploying the Structure: Sketch by Danika Patrick
Open Structure: Sketch by Danika Patrick
In general though, the 1/2 size prototype had its flaws but the concept worked. It seemed to be a very good product that had potential for real life use. It is light weight, easy to manufacture, collapses small enough to be carried similar to a bundle of woods, expands with ease and can be modular to fit different families. It would be a shelter you could get the day after the disaster that would protect people from the elements and give them a place to be safe till more permanent housing was created.

My Team included Minjeong Kim & David Goligorsky.