Common Theme: Need for Shelter

The common  theme of all emergency shelters and transitional shelters is that they provide shelter and in general a better level of comfort than the shelter people were housed in immediately after the disaster.

Following on from my last post considering the differing requirements of transitional shelters: – Is it that expectations are different depending on the location – because of the standard of living before hand? Particularly between rich countries & poor countries, for instance a basic cabin in rural Pakistan (eg.) following a massive earthquake would seem much more… (luxurious?) than the same basic cabin in the UK following a flood.

Is it the level of loss that the becomes the defining element for peoples requirements / expectations following a disaster? If you have lost everything in a tsunami or earthquake what would be your expectations / requirements for a shelter compared with someone whose house had been flooded and was now drying before they can return and were thus in temporary shelter.

Please note – I am not saying that one loss is greater than another – whatever the disaster ANY loss is awful and deeply personal and affects people differently…(can this also have an effect on peoples expectations / requirements?)

If we get right down to the basic level of the theme: a need for shelter is it a places climate that is the biggest defining element of the requirements of a transitional shelter – protection from cold weather, hot weather, rain, snow, large diurnal temperature swings..etc?????????????????????????????????????????????????????

The Final Project...

OK, so here we go, the final project. My initials thoughts have been to look at disaster relief shelters, more specifically transitional shelters designed for short medium term occupation - post tent and emergency shelter - before final reconstruction.


Starting at a wide point of thinking about how to re-house communities following a flood (for example) something better than caravans in UK (again for example) a structure that would be more flexible particularly for big families.


I am also beginning to think about what happens to schools, doctors surgeries and post offices those kind of community buildings if they are affected.

http://www.tewkesbury.gov.uk/gloshomeseeker/media/images/h/j/Tewkesbury_Borough_Flooding_2007.JPG

...Flood as the Generator

York: Foss as the Initiator...

The Cultural Building

Here is the conclusion of the project - better late than never

The Building

The Location -The building is located on the corner of Briggate and Kirkgate, currently ZARA and H&M, currently lacking any street presence along Kirkgate The location is at the heart of Briggate giving the building a good public face as well as making it highly accessible allowing frontage to be recreated along Kirkgate as was historically the case

The Goals - The building aims to give people access to a greater range of cultural experiences from special interests to international subcultures. The builiding will reinvent an historic type grain on the site bringing a 21st century twist to the yards of the past. The building will provide a showcase for local film and music talent

The Function - The building will a be a new entertainment venue for Leeds catering for a wide variety of interests in music & film by housing an independent cinema a music performance space and new retail space for specialist shops linking in with the buildings other functions such as film memorabilia and independent music stores