COMPETITION BRIEF:

DISASTER – RELIEF – TRANSIT - STRUCTURE

Introduction

Disasters are manifold; sometimes they take the shape of earthquakes, sometimes, volcanoes and
sometimes hurricanes, cyclones and tornadoes. India has always witnessed three of these primary
disasters; namely earthquakes and floods.

India has a large part of its land area liable to wide range of probable maximum seismic
intensities where shallow earthquakes of magnitudes of 5.0 or more have been known to occur in
the historical past. In the Kutch and Andaman Islands, giant earthquakes of M > 7.5 have also
taken place. The largest earthquake magnitude in India has been 8.7 which had its origin in the
Shillong plateau in 1897. Earthquakes are the greatest destroyers of man-made buildings,
bridges, power plants, industrial structures and the like.

Floods triggered by heavy monsoon rains regularly kill thousands of people in the northern and
eastern states affecting millions of homes. Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses
when placed in natural flood plains of rivers. While flood damage can be virtually eliminated by
moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of mind, people in India have
lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy
travel and commerce by being near water.

Similarly cyclones (also called hurricane and typhoon in different parts of the world) and are also
a major natural hazard in the tropics. Extremely violent winds, heavy rains causing floods and
storm tides causing coastal inundation are the destructive factors associated with tropical
cyclones and are responsible for the colossal loss of life and property. The impact of tropical
cyclone destruction on the society has been so large that this is the single factor which led to the
establishment of organized meteorological services in many countries in the world towards the
beginning of this century so as to warn mariners and the coastal population against the danger of
tropical cyclones.

The following are the overall statistics of damage of life and property in India during 1980 and
2008.

No of events: 395.
No of people killed: 139,393.
Average killed per year: 4,807.
No of people affected: 1,506,794,740.
Average affected per year: 51,958,439.
Economic Damage (US$ X 1,000):45,184,830.
Economic Damage per year (US$ X 1,000): 1,558,098
Since such times, there have always been government and NGO undertakings to eradicate,
prevent and ensure the occurrence of minimum damage as a result of these calamities.
The problem has been framed keeping into consideration the possibilities to respond to
catastrophic situations of seismic, flood as well as cyclonic disturbances.

Major concern:
1. Considering the population of India, about 30%-40% gets affected on an average during
times of the frequent natural disasters.
2. Relief operations do undertake, but it becomes difficult to manage their miseries during the
period of rehabilitation.
3. Hence there is an urgent need for framing policies that addresses their issues pragmatically as
well as emotionally.
The idea of a temporary shelter may lead to aid in the broader level decisions that need to be an
integrated part of the policies.

Problem statement:
To design a transit shelter in disaster affected regions for disaster affected people considering the
following criteria:
The location of the proposed area is anywhere in India; nonetheless, the design must respond to
the dangers of earthquakes, floods as well as cyclones.
The challenge for the designer – ‘decipher the code’:
Design considerations for Earthquake, flood and cyclone resistant structures are quite
opposite to each other to some extent. Can you invent the potter’s wheel?

Design goals:

To achieve -
1. Ease in transportation from place of manufacture to the affected region as well as future
applicability in terms of its storage, maneuverability and portability.
2. Provision of semi-private space in the dwelling unit, considering the social structure of rural
population where most of the time they spend outdoors.
3. Optimizing the spatial requirement for a family of 4 members.
4. Simplicity in operation to allow the people erect and dismantle the unit by themselves.
5. Conserving important time during further panicky situation and to allow easy evacuation.
6. To make the structure aerodynamic as well as seemingly stable to counteract the fear-
psychosis of the panic-stricken people associated with conventional profile of a dwelling
7. To generate a sense of community living through integration of the module in the spatial
network.
8. Nature and cost of material used.
Submission requirements:

Prelims:
Design philosophy explained in not more than 2 A3 Sheets (soft copy).
They should be e-mailed to drts.cogni@gmail.com .
Last date of online submission: 15th February 2011

Finals:
Presentation in front Jury for 6 + 6 minutes.
A panel of 4 A1 size sheets will be provided for each team, in addition to the LCD projector for
presentations and walkthroughs.

Eligibility:
The competition is open for all students.
A team may comprise a maximum of 2 students.