Inquiry

This week, our company (Shelters Inc) brainstormed ideas for an emergency shelter design. We needed to think of the structural shape and design of the emergency shelter. We also needed to think about what our shelter will be designed to resist. Our shelter is designed to resist strong winds and water pressure.

What programme did you use?

My group used a design programme called SketchUp, that allows people to design and create anything they want in three dimensions. 

What shape did you use? Why?

We chose to use a hexagonal-prism for our emergency shelter design. This is because a hexagon is a very strong shape, and it can deflect wind flow.

What material do you think is best?

We decided to make the shelter out of tungsten because it is strong and polyurethane because it is absorbent. We think these are suitable materials for water and wind natural disasters.

What changes could you make?

Some changes we can make is the size of our shelter. We think that the size could be bigger because the shelter looks small and if it is more spacious, people can put more things in the shelter.                                                                                       

How thick should the walls be?

The walls should be very thick, roughly between a meter thick, and made of tungsten. They should be thick so they can withstand aggressive winds and strong water currents. Also because of the wind or water pressure will not break the wall.

How will people get into the shelter? How big will the opening be?

The entrance of the shelter is 3.3 meter tall and 2.3 meters wide so that in case of an emergency, everybody can enter.

Do you need windows? How big/small should they be?

There should be windows so that the people inside the emergency shelter are aware of what is happening and can identify if it is safe to exit the emergency shelter. The windows should be fairly small, about 1.5 meters so that people can see out of them clearly.