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Design to Help 

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2. Materials Using

2. Material Using

There are several of building materials in this world, but not every kind of materials is suitable to construct an emergency shelter. A construction of an emergency shelter has to consider about many side, not for aesthetic but for its function, how it work perfectly to protect the users of the shelter and function as a shelter to rebuilt their family, life and confidence.

 

The uses of correct material in the right situation have to consider as the following list;

I, Climate of the site;

II, Environment and condition of the site;

III, Cost and human resources;

IV Type of materials.

I, Climate of the site

Climate of site has become the main thing to consider in the stage of choosing suitable materials for the emergency shelter. There will be differences of material choosing between a cold condition and a hot condition. Materials use to construct an emergency shelter in a hot climate site will be easier to get and is cheaper than materials for cold climate. Most of the materials can be found in the local as they might have a lots of natural materials supplies from the natural world. Somehow, there are still some difficulty hot climate sites that lack of these natural materials supplies such as, bamboos (Picture 22), woods (Picture 23) and others In this situation, materials for the shelter might need to transfer there here or maybe consider about recycle use of the unused materials after the disaster like shipping pallets (Picture 24). For the site in a cold climate, materials choosing for the shelter have to be more carefully, because in a cold condition there will be more things to consider about. The materials for cold climate site must be able to keep the inside of the shelter warm, kept away the cold air and wind blow, able to stand for heavy snow and strong wind, and also able to keep warm of the user body temperature, especially while sleeping. 

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Picture 22. Bamboo structure shelter

Picture 23. Wooden Structure Shelter

Picture 24. Shipping wooden pallets

II, Environment and condition of the site

The environment and condition sometimes also can affect the use of the construction material for an emergency shelter. It depends on how bad is the site has been destroyed in the disaster and where the site is located. The environment and condition of the site will also affect the transferring of the material and material available, because in certain place materials transferring might very hard to be located. The recycle used of the unused material and wasted material after the disaster is much more recommended to use for construction of the emergency shelter. But it will be a very hard work to progress these materials because they need lots of process until they can become stable and safe building materials. Refugees will be required to take part on construction the emergency shelter, as they must learn to be independent and the value of their house. Of course, they will get necessary technical and other support from the organization and government. (unhcr.org, accessed: 21 Dec 2014)  

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III, Cost and Human resources

Most of the natural disaster happened in a condition of unexpected, so not much people able to prepare for the disaster. In some country, they don’t have such information how to prevent or aftermath of a disaster. These might because of the lack of information given by the department in charge. In some developing country, they don’t have much money to prevent natural disaster and aftermath of a disaster; they have to seek for help from some private organization, or the other charity or religion organization. All of these organizations will work without profit to help these refugees to revive from the disaster. Most of their costs are from the fund raising supported internationally. Cost for the materials always can be reducing if necessary, depends on the situation of what kind of material is must and is not necessary. For example if the site contain several kind of natural materials that is strong enough to support for the shelter construction and able to protect the refugees, so that they can spend more money on the other supplies. The cost also might affect the human resources that work for the disaster. Even though most of the workers in these organizations are volunteers, but they still have to consider about provide foods and drinks, place to stay, transportation of these volunteers. Sufficient of human resources can help to reconstruct the disaster area rapidly, giving different kind of service for the refugees, to rebuild there home land, present a positive living concept and humanity for love. 

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IV, Type of Materials

Materials choosing for the shelter construction need to be very well planned and correctly chosen for the right situation. The choosing of materials has to concern about many different the factors and the reasons, like the entire list above. Materials can be divided into either natural materials or manmade materials. Natural material means the materials, which can get from the plant, animal and the earth. These materials are able to use without further chemical modification, but just simply modify using the natural techniques of cutting, combining, lashing and the other. The definition for man made material means the materials that have been modified by adding chemical product to create a different kind of materials that couldn’t be obtain from the original forms. For examples, plastic (Picture 25) and nylon (Picture 26). 

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Picture 25. Plastic products, bottles

Picture 26. Nylon products, string

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