Emergency Shelter Building

This thought provoking activity is both creative and really hands-on, getting everyone involved in the the challenge of how to design and build an emergency shelter out of our key recycled materials – cardboard, for structure and insulation, and PVC sheets for waterproofing.

What Can We Expect?

After a brief introduction to the activity and the need for solutions when disaster strikes – solutions which draw on materials that are readily available, tough and at the same type cheap or free to get hold of – we let the teams rip with their creativity and practical skills in the task of building their own shelter out of recycled cardboard and PVC sheeting

Cardboard has been used to build a remarkable number of buildings across the globe – from cardboard tents for festivals, to a cardboard cathedral in New Zealand. It’s corrugated structure gives it strength, whilst the paper based material and air gaps provide a surprisingly good degree of insulation from both cold and the heat.

One of the weak points about cardboard is that it loses it’s strength when wet – hence the need to add waterproofing to our challenge. We provide each team with 2 PVC tarpaulins which we reuse in each event so nothing is wasted

Teams will need to think about space requirements (we ask for the shelter to be big enough for 2 people to share), accessibility, and strength above all.

Then we put the shelters to the test! We select the best 3 looking shelters for the final, and get them lined up together with a couple of team members inside. Then all the other participants get a chance to belt the shelter with foam balls – testing their resilience in the face of this “storm”

A great fun way to work out which shelter really had the strongest design, and to bring to an end this thought provoking exercise in creativity and team bonding.

In Conclusion

Fun, creative and thought provoking, this activity unites teams not only through the building and design process, but also through the moral discussion that arises around it

Where?

This activity is available across Europe in any location, indoor or outdoor. In Spain, France and Portugal the minimum group size required is normally 50 people. In other locations across Europe it depends – please contact us for details, as we may be able to be flexible.

Ecological consideration

As with all of our activities, we reuse and recycle as much of the materials as possible. In this activity, that is around 70% of the materials, making it a very ecologically considerate activity.