Hasta La Ideas

ICFF is a source of inspiration whether you go to collect carpet samples, to show off your revolutionary new line of blond bentwood furniture, or to leave fingerprints all over Tom Dixon’s gleaming display and aspirations of future wealth. Among the sconces and recliners, I was thrilled to see one project that paired the show-standard stylish ambition with a dream of worldly good. Back in Booth 1376, one plywood project stood out bulkily from the crowd. “Out of Failure” is the product of a University of Cincinnati capstone studio course, aimed at designing a better disaster relief shelter.

In cases of emergency, there is often a long, painful gap between the event and the arrival of a FEMA relief trailer. Filling the gap is a vital issue for the health and sanity of affected populations, and most interim options are both lackluster and relied on for much longer than intended. Using Haiti as a test case, students aimed to create a cheaply produced, easily constructed, permanent-feeling structure that could house six people with dignity, AND meet the varied needs of daily life in the region. They did a swell job.

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