Easy, cheap homeless dome

Energy & Sustainability
Easy, cheap homeless dome
homelessdome.jpg

Young maker Max Wallack designed this system for using plastic, wire, and packing peanuts to construct a shelter for homeless people and disaster victims, and he won a hefty design prize for it. Keep up the good work, Max! Via Geekologie.

Update:
Chris Connors covered this event in more detail, and even gave Max a copy of MAKE to read inside the dome!

16 thoughts on “Easy, cheap homeless dome

  1. tekproxy says:

    I hope there are some air holes designed into that thing… Neat design.

  2. Anonymous says:

    There are spaces open between the pieces. That thing, while super cool, wouldn’t keep out rain.

    Earthen domes, now those are emergency shelters!

  3. Scrooge McDuck says:

    What foreshadowing! just in time for the Hooverville camps!

  4. neat says:

    I find the kid’s idea great from a design point of view. To imagine the thing from his ugly ass modell and then to built it. Unfortunately however, it will have no practical application. A similar invention has already been made. It is is called a *TENT*. Cool, ha? In contrast to this thing it will have no gaps beween the segments that are impossible to really close, it will not waste too much material like this thing, it will not spray packing peanuts into the environment once the foil is damaged, it will permit the exchange of humidity to a certain degree and avoid that the people inside are wet after a night and last but not least: IT WILL NOT FLY AWAY WITH THE NEXT LITTLE BIT OF WIND!

  5. TD says:

    This could easily be made more weather-tight by leaving small flaps of plastic sheet at the edges of the basic shapes that make up the dome. Think duct-tape! A tent will blow away if it isn’t held down with stakes. A basic shape with screen instead of plastic/peanuts and an extra flap of plastic would make a window that can be opened or closed. There are a lot of small refinements that could easily make this a more habitable shelter without increasing cost or difficulty of assembly too much.

  6. curious says:

    Styrofoam bubble > cardboard box, at least. :)

  7. Anonymous says:

    Hey Max,
    Thought you should know that your structure is visible from the mass pike! I was riding the peter pan bus back from Umass tonight, and happened to catch a glimpse of your dome sitting inside design continuum. Kinda cool to realize that your work actually exists beyond the 1s and 0s of the interweb.

    Keep Making

    McKGyver

  8. mckgyver says:

    Hey Max,
    Thought you should know that your structure is visible from the mass pike! I was riding the peter pan bus back from Umass tonight, and happened to catch a glimpse of your dome sitting inside design continuum. Kinda cool to realize that your work actually exists beyond the 1s and 0s of the interweb.

    Keep Making

    McKGyver

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Becky Stern is a Content Creator at Autodesk/Instructables, and part time faculty at New York’s School of Visual Arts Products of Design grad program. Making and sharing are her two biggest passions, and she's created hundreds of free online DIY tutorials and videos, mostly about technology and its intersection with crafts. Find her @bekathwia on YouTube/Twitter/Instagram.

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