Flatpacked humanitarian family shelters can withstand hurricanes

HUSH2 is a flat pack, humanitarian shelter which can house up to five displaced people and transform into a hurricane shelter in 7 minutes.

Extremis technology produce humanitarian shelters which can house a family of up to five in a disaster struck area until permanent housing can be rebuilt. Their latest product is the HUSH2, a flat packed structure, made from marine ply wood that can be erected easily in under two hours without any special skills or tools. Setting it apart from similar designs, the modular shelter can also be reconfigured to provide a hurricane shelter in just seven minutes — providing protection from hurricane force winds up to 200mph.

Sadly, there is a huge demand for such shelters: an estimated 30-50 million people are displaced due to conflict or disaster and after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, 135,000 transitional shelters were needed. Extremis are currently seeking investment through a Crowdcube campaign, in order to finance their latest deployment in the Dominican Republic.

We have seen a number of innovative examples of engineering recently — such as The Programmable Table , which transforms from a shippable flat pack to a sturdy table with a simple push. How else could reconfigurable furniture be used to improve the lives of those who have been displaced?