Hakan Gursu of Turkish creative consultancy Designnobis designed the Tentative shelter after he saw that many victims of earthquakes in his country did not have access to temporary housing. He also knew that natural disasters displaced 22 million people in 2013. That was three times the number who were displaced by war.
The Tentative temporary shelter is easy to transport and can be assembled quickly. It has a molded-fiberglass roof and floor that are held in place by an aluminum frame. Legs hold the structure off the ground to reduce heat loss. Fiberglass doors fold up from the floor and provide more security than tent doors.
The roof is designed to allow natural light and ventilation into the shelter. It can also collect rainwater so the occupants have access to safe drinking water. The floor has recyclable thermal-insulating composite decks.
The parts are connected by a weather-resistant quilted fabric. The fabric has thermally-insulated perlite, a form of obsidian that is used for insulation, between the layers to form the walls of the structure.
In order to expand the Tentative shelter, the covers are opened to form the roof and floor. Then the aluminum parts and doors are raised and the fabric is stretched between the roof and the floor.
When it is set up, the Tentative shelter measures four meters long, two meters wide, and two and a half meters high. It is large enough to provide space for two adults and two children to eat and sleep in their own private living space.
The shelter can be collapsed down into the roof and floor. They form a 30-centimeter-high shell that is easy to transport. Twenty-four of the units can be stacked onto one semi-trailer truck.