Pulled this from wired news. The difficulty of providing accomodation quickly and cheaply under arduous circumstances such as wars & natural disasters is a serious issue for governments, armies and aid agencies. According to Wired a solution could be at hand.
A pair of engineers in London have come up with a “building in a bag” — a sack of cement-impregnated fabric. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use.
The inventors are students completing their Masters Degrees in Industrial Design & Engineering at the Royal College of Art in London. They got the idea when they heard about inflatable structures used in the repair of broken gas pipes.
The inventors filed a patent, which covers the concept of creating structures using a cement-impregnated cloth bonded to an inflatable inner surface. Full-scale production is planned and could take off soon, as Concrete Canvas is short-listed for the New Business Challenge run by Imperial College London and the Tanaka Business School. The winner of the £25,000 ($48,000) prize will be announced next week.
I like the quote from the program head of Medicins San Frontieres in Uganda who would like to buy 10 as soon as they become available. The advantages over flimsy tents and the transportation issues of prefab buildings mean that many more buildings could be constructed this way in the future. Perhaps even houses?