Boyuan Zhang
Architectural Engineering
SHELL-T: Temporary House Design
SHELL-T is a temporary shelter designed for homeless refugee after the earthquake. The project is focusing on the semi-arid region where it has relatively high frequent earthquake and extreme climate condition.
In order to provide a comfortable indoor environment, SHELL-T integrated the industrial production together with vernacular wisdom. It has a double thin layer of prefabricated materials as an envelope, filled with on-site natural materials such as sand in-between as thermal mass. The idea is to save the energy and expense on production and transportation, meanwhile makes the shelter comfortable and strong.
The post-disaster recovery usually takes 3-5 years, during this transitional period, SHELL-T can provide an option for the refugee to extend and personalize their living space. As a result, the final appearance of each family and community will be unique that people can have a sense of belonging and identity for their own temporary home.