Recent Posts

Friday, November 28, 2008

shleter bus part II, other wise known as suicide

The second part of our shelter bus project has been an emotional roller coaster, to say the least. When first given the assignment to design a mobile relief unit for four hurricane workers I was really excited, even though i knew the amount of work that would need to be done. Knowing this I started right away and have been working since the start of the 2nd half of the semester. I first decided to do some research on neat rv's in the past. Below is a picture I found where the rv could go from land to water, much like the duck tours you see in popular tourist cities.
After doing some more research I stumbled upon an RV that was not the shape of a rectangle like most. Instead it was a full sphere. It was used for haunted purposes in Gettysburg, PA. I thought that the idea of hacing a shape other then rectangle was a new and neat idea. All i had to do was come up with layout to incorporate this shape and make sure it wasn't to big and would still be able to drive. Below is one of my first floorplans:
This is the first sketch i did on sketch up to get my ideas out there for how the bus would be. This was suppposed to be the original shape when it was all said and done, but i found I didn't have as much room as i would want, so i decided to transform this shape one more time. However when everything is folded in this is what it would look like.
when thinking about our clients, there is one specific client that has a special need. She is visually impaired. Having a mother who is blind in one eye I tried to think of things she has problems with. So I came up with a central room that when walking if you put your hand on it, it would guide you through all the spaces. This room became the bathroom.
I wanted separate rooms for the four relief workers. I decided this would be best because when I did katrina relief for a month, just 6 months after the hurricane hit, I slept in a tuesday morning with about 40 other girls. Just on the other side of a curtain was the guys. Even though I knew I was well off compared to those who were affected but the hurricane I couldn't help but wish I had my own space to go, and be by myself. To create these spaces I created an upper floor for two of the workers and expanded two rooms on the first floor for the visually impaired woman and the woman who had a broken leg.
The entrance to the bus is not a regular door, I decided to incorporate the outside and the entrance. Part of the porch railing will unlock and come down to create a ramp. Then the door on the porch leads you to the inside.

To finish my project I needed to come up with a concept and alter what I already had to fit that concept. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to come up with one before you design your bus, but I have found it easer to come up with a concept if you first think of some ideas then look to see what all those ideas have in common. The concept that I chose is Sand Dunes. I then needed to push my idea more. So I added a roof that would resemble the movement and shape of a sand dune. I also added this sort of roof to the bathroom, instead of leaving it open. I created organic lines through out the shelter bus and even altered my furniture to resemble something of a sand dune.

0 comments: