The design of the 4:10 house has continued to develop over these past few months improving its provided quality of living with each design change. The University of Kansas' Junior archtiectural studio of Fall 2009 run by Bruce Johnson will continue to study and improve the proto type as well as come up with new designs to bring us closer to the ideal goal of mass prodcution and global usage.
4:10 House
Submitted by AlexKU1 on Fri, 01/30/2009 - 16:08
the problem:
The 4:10 House is a disaster relief shelter designed to accommodate people who have been displaced from their homes due to natural disasters. Different solutions are used all over the world when it comes to housing disaster victims or refugees many are of poor quality and lack the fundamental elements of a home.
vital stats:
people impacted:
0people involved:
18why it's important:
The 4:10 House is a modular shelter built of OSB (oriented strand board) and a vinyl fabric. Its structure consists of a series of 4x10 foot bays that can be easily added to create different sized shelters to accommodate different amounts of people. Each bay consists of C shaped ribs and a floor that attaches similar to a drawer making for easy assembly and deployability. All of the members are light weight and can be set up into an entire shelter in less than 5 hours.
The south facing wall is made of operable louvers allowing the inhabitants to control their surrounding environment. The floor allows for storage underneath the shelter and also contains "flat pack" furniture that can be taken out and set up when needed, allowing for the space to be easily cleared by placing the tables and chairs back into the floor. Bunk style beds fold down from the back wall and contain a shelf where pieces of a passive solar heating water element can be placed to provide heat at night.
With an exterior skin made mostly of fabric, insulation was a large concern. Packing peanuts were used in the two end walls formed by a 2x4 frame wrapped in vinyl to provide insulation from the cool winds of most moderate climates. The ultimate goal would be to make these shelters adaptable to any climate all over the world.
the plan of action:
Several schemes were designed boasting deployability, modularity, cost efficiency, adaptability to locations worldwide as well as their light weight and sense of "home". Several study models were then built and a single design was chosen. Full scale mock up models were then built to test out design decisions and then final construction began. When the shelter was finished it was set up on the lawn outside of Marvin Hall on the University of Kansas campus to draw attention to the disaster relief effort. Many students were unaware of the current conditions in which refugees and disaster victims live before visiting the 4:10 house. The ultimate goal is to submit the design to organizations like FEMA and the Red Cross with hope that they can adapt a version of the shelter and use it to help those in need.
how you can get involved:
n/aproject updates:
08/07/2009
Comments
Absolutely, the coolest thing I have seen in a really long time. I hope FEMA will adapt this idea. My family was affected by Wildfires several years ago where 450 families had no where to go and this would have certainly helped tremendously. Way to go, team!