When tragedy strikes, creating shelter for exiled residents is one of the first things needed, especially when speed is the crucial difference between life and death. The uLites project, funded by the European Union, is designed to provide a fast reaction in the form of a modular, inflatable shelter that can be extended to create an airtight structure of almost any size.
Buildair, the Spain-based international engineering and architectural firm, designed the uLites shelter as a set of integrated inflatable tubes. They can be formed into various shapes and sizes to suit the specific emergency, and they can accommodate large amounts of people and vehicles. The tubes can individually be inflated in around 30 minutes, and the embedded solar cells on the flexible textile are then embedded onto the shelter.
The reason behind this incredible design is for the several thousand people worldwide who become homeless annually due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods or windstorms. The uLites project is hopeful evidence that future disaster victims will have access to shelter during emergency situations.
Images provided by Buildair
