The escalating number of disasters presents huge challenges for humanitarian and development organisations. This increase in affected people worldwide, and most of the times in developing countries, is truly alarming. When such disasters happen, the aim of each humanitarian organisation is to meet the needs of the affected households by providing, among others, shelter assistance, food and medicine. In order to provide those basic needs, a shelter infrastructure is needed. PhD student Aushim Koumar and researchers Tine Tysmans and Niels de Temmerman developed the Transitional Scissor Structures in collaboration with "Médecins sans Frontières".
Easy transportable, fast to deploy or fold and a high volume increase.
Smart shelter
Two main categories of shelter exist: the family shelter, to provide temporary accommodation to the local population, and collective service tents, which are used as a community centre, dispensary, field hospital … The latter are, however, structurally complex; it takes a substantial amount of time to build them, they are designed as one size fits all product and cannot be used in the different phases of the recovery.
An alternative to the current kit-of-part systems, that is faster to erect, is the use of deployable scissor systems because of the easy transportability, the ease and speed of erection and folding, as well as the high volume increase between compact and deployed state. Furthermore, scissors structures can be disassembled and their structural elements can be combined into a building kit for use in a later stage of disaster relief, which emphasised the sustainable aspect of the solution. A sustainable shelter solution should indeed not only cover the short-term needs of those who are affected but should also serve as a catalyst for the further development of the local community.