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Design to Help 

With a better experience

1. Elkins DIY, Homeless, emergency shelter

Picture 37. Elkins DIY homeless and emergency shelter

Paul Elkins, a DIY designer, get inspired to come out with this homeless emergency shelter (Picture 37) after he read two of these books, which are Zero Yen House and Fragile Dwellings. Both of these books are described about the problems of homeless people. He decided to design something more practical and useful structure within a budget of $100 for the whole design materials. This designer has a favorite material, which is Coroplast (Picture 38), or better known as the ‘fluted plastic. The reason that made this designer love this material is because of its unique qualities of, lightweight, insulating properties, flexibility, water resistance, strength, versatility and of course the cost for this material is very cheap. This material also come with many colours that can use for differentiate zones if necessary. (elkinsdiy.com, accessed: 23 Jan 2015)

 

Picture 38. Coroplast

From the images (Picture 39-41), you can see that the material is very flexible to bend; the roof part of the shelter is like a semicircle. Paul used the 8* long plastic zip tie to join all the parts together. For the interior of the shelter, Paul managed to create more space to put in personal belongings and a wider living space. (elkinsdiy.com, accessed: 23 Jan 2015)

Picture 39. Shelter with curved roof

Picture 40. Work in Progress

Picture 41. Work in Progress

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