08 May 2008

Myanmar and "bioclimatic" shelters

I’m sure you heard the news about Myanmar [Burma for those yearning for the nostalgic past].
Here are a few reminding photos from Yahoo



A few months ago, ARES-UIA competition jury selected the scheme shown below as the best answer to natural disasters, using “Renewable energy sources and bioclimatic architecture for shells, to shelter people affected by natural disasters”.

According to its designers, the scheme can be adapted to different regions of the world by changing the fabric colour; for Myanmar type of environment, green canvas is suggested.

The current humanitarian crisis of more than a million homeless people in Myanmar is a good test for the suitability of the selected design.

In this case, about 150-200,000 units from a prefabricated stock somewhere in the world should be flown to Yangon, and then transported by a fleet of trucks to the affected areas (care should be taken to send green units only, not yellow or blue ones which are for different climatic regions).
Legions of IKEA-trained specialists should accompany the shipments in order to unpack and assemble the units on site after the flooded land is dry again.
Once the costly PV panels and their batteries are in place, the lucky ex-homeless will be able to watch their favourite TV show in order to burry their grief.
Shortages of drinkable water or the danger of epidemics will be addressed by the ultra hi-tech sanitation compartments contained in each individual unit.
As for financial relief, the penniless refugees
could fetch a good price for those expensive PV panels and batteries (before being blown away by the next storm).

Now, isn't that holistic sustainable design indeed?


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