Earthquake shelter

Drom

I´m very grateful to Maria Fernanda Nava, Maria Fernanda Galicia, Julieta Álvarez and Alan Sosa for their incredible effort during a period of 3 demanding and intensive days in one of the most tenses weeks in Mexico’s history. One year later I decided to finish what we’ve done that week.

During September 2017 ,Mexico has suffered one of the most terrible disasters in its history. An earthquake of 7.1 grades in the Richter scale occurs, hitting the center zone of the country. The local and international humanitarian aid arrived instantly, the whole country joined as a big brotherhood to face this tragedy. Nowadays, a year and four months later, there still some communities and even are cases in the capital city of the country (CDMX) where families don't have a roof to cover. In the best cases, friends or family hosts the affected. But there are some other cases, where the affected are still living in uninhabitable houses or in the outdoors. Both cases are risky for the safety of the citizen.

Drom born as the necessity of fast construction temporary houses where people affected by any disaster can find a roof to cover and live. Drom acts as a small space able to be built in a small area (street, public spaces, etc.). The house counts with space for 2 hanging beds, remaining space for supplies, medicines, etc. The structure of the house will be given by aluminum 6351 extruded joist, joined by aluminum 6351 extruded bars taking advantage of the mechanical resistance, and environment resistance(Rust).

The joist counts with small holes where pine wood shingles will be added, the idea is to isolate external temperature creating a blank space between the wood, this space could be filled with debris, concrete, or any regional material (In my region we could use clay). The joist form allows to increase the space, add extensions for different applications, etc. An example of extensions supports where you can tie up anything you want (In this case the beds and the roof). Also, the joist counts with a blank space in the form of an X, you can use this cavity for electrical connections, water connections, etc. If you need it you can drill any of the peaks of the X. The bed and the roof are made of temperature insulating fabric, in this way with the walls, the house will keep a regular temperature.

The year of the disaster I was one of the communities(Chietla, Atzala, Atlixco, Huehuetlan, just to mention some names) assistants near the city I live (Puebla). It was one of the worst experience I ever had, every time I needed to tell a family that they needed to leave their houses or the part of their house that still remaining, every time a heard that a corpse was found, even a year later when I come back to these communities, and the people ask me for tarpaulins to cover up in the night. With this project, I just want to contribute a little bit more, not only help the victims of the earthquakes, I think it could work for any homeless people, whatever it was the reason they've lost their homes.

Earthquake shelter
Earthquake shelter