Work+in+Progress

__Brainstorming & Design Process __
We began with the simple idea of a portable house, one that could be easily transported in pieces. During our initial meeting, we toyed with the concept of a shelter that was as easy to build as a camping tent, but much more durable and sturdy. The shelter should be secured to the ground, and the walls should be strong enough to stand on their own. We agreed upon the dimensions: about as large as the library study room that we sat in. Scribbling drawings across the whiteboard, we envisioned a large plastic cube with a door, latched to the ground with pins similar to the camping tent concept (see drawing).

The shelter would consist of six large pieces of plastic—four walls, a roof, and a floor. The floor was a point of contention—after considering a simple vinyl sheet to reduce bulk, we decided the floor should also be a proper piece of plastic. This way, it would help secure the shelter walls and protect its inhabitants from sleeping on the soil.

We began to think about the folding mechanism. We wanted a balance between convenience, stability, and ease of transportation. After considering several folding systems --- including an “accordion” style in which the front and back walls would remain rigid and fold the side walls in on each other—we decided that the four main walls would each fold into thirds. It would still be like an accordion, except all the walls would fold vertically. Now we needed a way to keep the accordion rigid so the walls would stand still.

The biggest design challenge was arguably how to attach the walls to each other. At first, we assumed that the walls would all be separate, and we would attach them together using various techniques. We brainstormed several systems—a set of hinges, a hook that held up all the wall-panels on a rope like blinds, and more. Eventually, we settled on a system of rebars—like the bars that run through concrete walls to reinforce them. The rebars would run horizontally through the plastic walls to keep them extended, and the end of each rebar would be a hook to attach its wall to the other wall. In order to make set-up even easier, we connected the side walls and back walls with hinges. All the user had to do was extend the three walls, place them in a “U” formation, and run the rebars through them to secure them to each other. The three attached walls would resemble a piece of paper folded into thirds once, and then again (see image).

We finished our brainstorming by tweaking a few of the components. We decided that the rebars would run through small “tunnels” built into the plastic walls, instead of hanging by rings protruding through the walls so to save space when the walls were folded down. We solved the problem of leakage from the roof hinges by covering each slit with a vinyl sheet, added a series of slits on the side of one wall for ventilation, and replaced our original carrying-bag on wheels with a bag that could be easily dragged, since the bottom would be lined with kneepad-like plastic to make it glide easily.