Emergency Shelter from Wardrobe Boxes

Are you tired of spending the night in a tent or the local super dome, waiting for your new trailer from FEMA? Well, don't hold your breath. Instead, build this nifty shelter from cardboard or other rigid sheet material. Because it is one piece, it sets up quick, folds down flat, and is mass producible. This is all possible because of pleats. Yes, pleats! The pleats let otherwise wasted material strengthen the structure and automagicly shed rain water. No more taping, tarping, or shingling in the field to keep the rain out. Just set up the structure and you're done! (OK, you also need to hold it down some way so it doesn't blow away.)

Besides emergency shelter, this structure could also be a playhouse, dog house, temporary work building, astronomy observatory, deer blind, EMI shield enclosure, ice fishing house, orbital habitat, green house, bullet proof enclosure, animal shelter, fire shelter, Burning Man habitat, and so on. All portable, cheap, and quickly erect-able. Just change the size and shape to meet your needs and select the appropriate materials. Variations of this concept can also make solar concentrators, dish antennas, and domes (maybe the world's first one peice, fold up dome!)

The example shown here is a very basic seven sided yurt type structure, made with Home Depot Wardrobe boxes, Gorilla tape, and spring clips. The wardrobe boxes are convenient because most of the creases needed for folding are already there.

Patent Pending. More variations to come, showing additional features and options. Thanks for your interest.

Step 1 Materials and Tools Needed

Home Depot Wardrobe boxes (4) - about $10 each new. I used left overs from a recent move. The Home Depot boxes have the same dimensions on all four sides. U-haul boxes don't. You can use boxes with unequal sides, but it changes the design a little.

Gorilla Tape (15 feet) - Any kind of reinforces tape will probably work, such as duct tape.

Spline Roller tool (1) - Normally used for pressing in the spline on window screens, it is also good for creasing the card board at places that need to fold.

Spring Clips (7) - a convenient device for holding the structure together.

Other tools you may find useful - tape measure or yard stick, markers, scissors, knife, Elmer's Exterior Wood Glue

Comments

[handyworks]

Waxed Cardboard. Like the kind of boxes used for veggies.

[dome_head]

Yes wax helps. Sometimes they laminate one side with plastic to waterproof. Paint also work.

[dustybat13]

Very nice design concepts. I can see this as an alternative to a flimsy camping tent for wet weather camping or extended camping trips. More of a semi-permanant structure. Of course it would need to be made out of something other than cardboard boxes for that type of use. Very nice job developing an idea! Hopefully this can be a catalyst for other people to explore this concept.

[dome_head]

Thanks for your comments. My next instructable shelter will be made from 4'x10' Coroplast sheets, a step up in durability from cardboard. Every material has its advantages and disadvantages, and the material selected will be a compromise between these for the given application. Cardboard may fall apart in damp weather, but it may be advantageous to have a material that can be recycled, composed, or burned for fuel at the end of its life. Coroplast degraded under ultraviolet light, which could be a benefit if we don't want the stuff cluttering up the environment for the next century.