You’d think there isn’t much room for innovation when it comes to delivering emergency rations to refugees and disaster victims, but that’s not quite the case. UNICEF has tapped design firm Psychic Factory to develop an aid package that not only carries food and water but also helps build a shelter.
Each package is shaped like a Lego brick, with each raised bump serving as the access point for the food and water compartments. When those supplies run out, you can fill the plastic container with sand and soil, and snap them together to fashion a temporary shelter. [Psychic Factory via PSFK via Inhabitat]
attila
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:39 PMI’m all for clever ideas, but wouldn’t you require hundreds of these things, just to build a shelter for a few people?
Biderjum
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:42 PMAirdrop a couple pallets of them and you could nearly have an outhouse!
matt
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 12:57 PMmy thoughts exactly
Fenix
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:03 PMStill better than just discarding the packaging as trash.
Sean
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:05 PMA rough calculation would be about 1200 of them to build the walls of a 2m x 2m square structure. On the flip side the same measurements mean that about a 1000 would stack in a cubic meter. The problem would be telling a family of four that they can either eat and drink for six months, or put up shelter, but not both at the same time.
Biderjum
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:39 PMMaybe you could have side access holes too, so that they can be accessed from inside the structure…
Boris
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:16 PMgreat idea – if tons of food and water are already being distributed, they may as well be in a useful container.
Jo
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 1:31 PMI sense a patent war from Lego!
Marlon
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:00 PMYou must be mistaking Lego for Apple… I dont think they would dent the poor housing… let’s hope UNICEF doesnt decide to send apples as part of the aid package.
JR
Thursday, November 24, 2011 at 9:22 PMOf course lego wouldn’t.
Their patents expired long ago.
They might try them in trademark court, like they did with mega bloks.
JR
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 10:12 PM4000 bricks for a reasonable house, single brick. 3 meals a day, even with 10 people in a house, the temporary shelter would take 133 days to build.
I say deliver grain in sacks, fill the sacks with straw, add clay and bam. Much more efficient, no design costs and uses all methods and technologies already in use.
MDolley
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 2:15 PMHmm..
Option A) 100 of those bricks
Option B) A basic tent plus food and water
I’d go with B. It provides more immediate shelter. I know the goal is to reduce waste but it still needs to be practical.
ewwe
Wednesday, November 23, 2011 at 4:06 PMThis is first world thinking for 3rd world problems. If this was ever introduced I bet on day one they would be cut open and used as moulds for Mud bricks. Or some other purpose than the one intended. Nice idea but impractical….. too many bricks to build a shelter… and who decides who gets the “lego” Brick shelter and those that don’t.