RE-DEPLOYABLE ALUMINIUM COMPOSITE TEMPORARY SHELTERS: A NEW TYPOLOGY IN DISASTER RELIEF EMERGENCY HOUSING

Abstract

Increasing occurrences of natural disasters in recent history have highlighted the problem of emergency housing in planning, design, and execution. In spite of academic literature and technological developments, typical emergency housing still consists of canvas tents or simple plastic sheets that provide poor living conditions. In view of this, this paper seeks to explore the possibility of using HYLITE®, an aluminium composite product by 3A Composites™ and used in the market for multiple applications, as an alternative material for use in emergency housing.

This paper starts by exploring the problems faced regarding the design of emergency housing, in order to understand what some of the key features or issues that the best design should have. Issues such as logistical efficiency, community engagement, and the ease of setting up are uncovered from empirical results and academic review on 3 recent disaster scenarios, namely, the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the 2005 Hurricane Katrina, and the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. Studies evaluating how the disaster was managed in the aftermath especially regarding the provision of housing and shelter for victims are reviewed in order to establish an evaluative criteria that the new material suggested should adequately satisfy.

Subsequently, the material, HYLITE®, is then qualitatively studied by means of similar precedents which utilize the same key principles and have been successfully implemented. Also, critical issues like structural form is also studied in order to understand how the material could potentially be used in an actual situation. Finally, residual issues that the material cannot satisfy by its own properties are treated with attempts at mitigating them qualitatively through other perspectives like possible design solutions.