Disaster Relief-Folding Pod

“Wright brothers dream was to fly, Hariri sisters dream is to save human lives”

Hariri & Hariri Architecture firm based in NYC & their UK based Engineer partner- Richard Perkin have been developing and constructing a Half-full scale-Concept Model of their innovative & much urgently needed Disaster Relief Pod- project since November 2019 that address the challenges of environmental sustainability, income inequality and social dislocation.

DISASTER RELIEF-FOLDING POD project has been envisioned, designed and developed by a team at the firm of Hariri & Hariri Architecture since 2018 with a mission to “save human lives” and to create a technologically challenging, ecologically responsible & morally rewarding alternative shelter or pod of the 21st century to replace the 18th century tents that are currently used by the army for disaster relief due to climate change devastations such as hurricanes, floods, forest fires, famine, earthquakes’, etc., and for displaced people due to global poverty & wars. An estimated 100 million people are homeless worldwide and live in army tents that were temporarily set up in camp for relief but they are still living in them some ten years later! We believe that “Home is a Human Right” and it is the architect’s social & moral responsibility to design structures adaptable to each social condition without losing design & architecture’s integrity, quality & character.

We have developed a concept model of a modest, modular, prefabricated pod inspired by ORIGAMI, the art of paper folding with a hinged frame, and lightweight sustainable panels on the exterior to facilitate their shipping and assembly. In its folded-flat configuration the lightweight pod fits on a flatbed truck so that it can be transported to any desired location and then un-folded on site with a push of a button and without assembly or any construction. Furthermore, it can be configured and expanded with additional pods into a variety of habitable combinations if necessary.