When natural disasters hit, one of the first relief supplies to arrive is clean, bottled drinking water. But soon the empty bottles could be put to good use too — in the form of this new style of disaster housing.
The design, by Home2O at the New York Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Design, uses a custom plastic pallet into crushed plastic bottles are screwed. The crushed bottles overlap, much like Spanish roof tiles, to form a surface that is fully covered and weatherproof.
The plastic pallet would be used to deliver goods, lasting for around 60 trips, compared to around eight for a normal wooden pallet. Then, when disaster does strike, old and beaten up pallets would be donated to the cause, then taken apart to construct the shelters. Home2O explains:
“When disaster did strike, a warehouse manager would just choose one of our more beaten-up pallets with which to deliver water bottles for relief, and consider that a tax write-off… We’re trying to develop a relief system that delivers critically needed water, but turns into another resource to plug into local knowledge and local expertise. The pallet could be broken apart and lashed to bamboo structures, earth structures, or even lumber structures made from disaster materials like 2x4s that have been strewn to the side.”
The roof needs no fasteners or tools to construct, and the team behind it believe that it can also provide disaster victims with some small sense of independence as well as shelter. The project has just exceeded it Kickstarter goal, so here’s hoping it rolls out real soon. [Kickstarter]