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Formerly Homeless Man Invents Portable Shelters to Help Others
A formerly homeless Utah man has used his insight to create and build “survival pods,” or mini-shelters, to be doled out to people who currently have nowhere to live.
“I believe a person needs the dignity of something they can call their own, even if it’s only this,” Gary Pickering, a retired auto-body-shop owner in Pleasant Grove, told TV news station KSL Tuesday.
Pickering, 73, was technically homeless for three years following a divorce in the late 1980s, when he lived in his shop.
“I lost my home after I signed everything over to my wife and seven children,” he told Yahoo! Shine. “But I had a roof over my head.” Because his shop was in an industrial area, he got to know many of the homeless men who lived in broken-down cars or in other corners of the area, eventually housing four in his van during a particularly harsh winter. He learned what it was like to not have a place to live, through the men he met, who explained that they didn’t go to shelters because of reasons ranging from “They steal my shoes” to “They won’t let me bring my dog.”
The lessons stuck with Pickering, who in 2009, long after he’d gotten back on his feet, saw a homeless man while driving through the nearby town of Provo. He went home and constructed a 2-foot-wide, 6-foot-long “cocoon,” mainly out of plywood. “But when I went to the find the man to give it to him, I couldn’t find him again,” he recalled.Pickering became passionate about coming up with the perfect temporary shelter. And after years of trial and error, he believes he’s finally perfected the “survival pod”: a 4-foot-wide, 8-foot-long micro house constructed from sheets of pressed wood, a wooden frame and a roof made of soft corrugated plastic called Coroplast.
There’s room enough inside for a sleeping bag, a kerosene lamp (there are vents in the structure), several small items, and even a specially designed portable toilet. Plus, the pods can be hooked up to electricity, like a trailer, if parked on already wired property with the permission of a homeowner.
Pickering has constructed five of the pods, personally funding them at a cost of about $500 apiece, he said.
“I didn’t do this as a business, I don’t want a business. I want to inspire other people,” Pickering toldKSL, explaining to Yahoo! Shine that he’s created how-to DVDs and photos to show folks with the money and the desire to build the structures for people who need them. Then, homeless people could either pay for them slowly, “so they can have some pride in it, and say ‘It’s mine,’” or make a formal lending agreement.The pods are built on wheels, like trailers, to get around zoning codes for buildings, Pickering added, so they could be placed in empty warehouses, hangars or on a piece of ground just outside of a city. Since the story of his invention aired on KSL, he said he’s already had an inquiry from a man who would like to buy a pod “for emergencies.”
But mainly, they are meant to be temporary shelters for those in immediate, short-term crises. Considering the fact that 63 percent of Utah’s homeless population is without a home only temporarily, according to a 2012 report, the pods could really have an impact on the community.
“People can find jobs, of course they’ll move on and get their nice house back and have their cars and everything,” he said. “But till that time, this will help them.”This is great
So many microshelters and microhouses are being built on wheels because of zoning laws, and it just hammers home that even a hundred square foot house (10 by 10 cube) costs tens of thousands of dollars to get up to code, plus practically requiring a full sized lot.
Like, housing standards do exist for a reason and I’m glad it’s not all laissez-faire, but the barriers that are erected between people and shelter aren’t all incidental or accidental.
If this kind of pod shelter catches on, I think we can expect ordinances against them, and being targeted for destruction by police/city officials who think the solution to homelessness is to make an area unlivable enough that they go somewhere else.
Bless this man.
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Zink-Mine-Museum (2003-in corso/ongoing) | Peter Zumthor
Location: Almannajuvet, Sauda
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This pop-up hotel in Belgium is called Sleeping Around. The rooms are shipping containers and you have to find your way to them using a GPS.
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“Providing food and shelter to victims of a natural disaster is one of the first priorities for emergency services, but the process can often generate a lot of unnecessary waste. To help tackle this problem, UNICEF has developed an amazing reusable LEGO-inspired brick that doubles as a food storage container and a building material, addressing multiple needs in one fell swoop. Read on to see more pictures of this clever object designed by Psychic Factory! The bricks have two compartments – one that holds rice and another that holds water. Once these vitals have been consumed, the bricks are then filled up with soil and sand to give them weight and stacked just like lego bricks into temporary shelters that gives disaster victims relief from the elements. In the meantime, all of the packaging that might have been used to provide clean drinking water and food are spared, as well as the headache of sourcing and distributing them. And the best part? When this area recovers, the bricks can be re-used somewhere else!
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Micro-origami unfolds in water
The exquisite pieces of origami that unfold in this video were created by artist Etienne Cliquet for a piece entitled Flotilla. He used a computer-controlled machine to precisely cut the tiny designs, which are just a few centimetres wide, then folded them by hand. “I wanted to express the paradox between the fragility of things and the disturbing potential of micro and nanotechnology,” he says.
Cliquet isn’t sure what causes his designs to unfold when placed in water but it’s likely to be the result of capillary action. When liquid is sucked into fibres within the paper, it prompts them to expand.
Some of Cliquet’s designs display fractal behaviour, with the same shapes appearing in smaller and smaller form as the pieces unfold. The first design in the video is particularly reminiscent of the Koch snowflake, one of the earliest known fractals. “I like the way fractal shapes can be folded recursively,” he says. “It’s like small machines when they unfold on the surface of water.”
via NewScientist
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Kimberley Hoffman, from the Academy of Art University in California, designed the Sea Kettle, which uses natural sunlight to desalinate water in the emergency life raft.
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“For a few years now Kubik has travelled Europe setting up prefab nightlife for thousands ready to groove. Behind the light show’s bumps and beats are towers of common water tanks stacked high to provide backdrops for countless shows and festivals. Designed by Blestra Berlin, the instant venues have hit all corners of the continent in all conditions to keep the bash lit late into the night.”
Read more: The Kubik is a Pre-Fabulous Party Venue | Inhabitat
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“ Life Cube, an inflatable tent that can set up in just five minutes is an example of a smart shelter design that has actually been built. Packed neatly into a recycled plastic container, it contains all the basic necessities needed post-disaster, including food, water, a battery, lights, radio, solar trickle charger and of course, a place to recuperate. Although the Life Cube hasn’t been vetted in a real world scenario, the company has at least had a chance to show it off to the Red Cross."
Read more: Life Cube: Inflatable Emergency Shelter | Inhabitat
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(via sebseballade)
!!!!!!!!!!
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(via randomfriendly)