Design for disaster – aid, victims, information, communication, knowledge, experiences, ideas, projects

Covid-19 rapid deployment test centre

Two of the most pressing needs worldwide in the coronavirus pandemic are for more hospital beds and testing centres. No country in the world has enough hospital beds or intensive-care unit (ICU) beds for a pandemic. We need structures that can be quickly and easily assembled, are inexpensive and meet technical requirements. Architects have always […]
Biodiversity conservation and business

The biological diversity makes our lives livable in the planet trough an array of ecological processes which provide us vital products and services, such as foods and materials that contributes to the economy. Although, factors such as habitat destruction, biological invasion and climate change have been taken numerous species to extinction. The lasting natural areas […]
Blue Freedom – Providing reliable first aid electricity from hydropower

Electrical power supply is among the first critically important services in disaster areas. Especially natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes or floodings lead to a destruction of the installed power grid and portable electricity becomes indispensable. One innovative solution is Blue Freedom Portable, a lightweight hydropower generator with 5W output capacity. With a weight of […]
Transition of Shelters – Portable Emergency Shelter

Migratation of refugess are indeed a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a Society involving widespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the ability of the affected community or society to cope using its own resources. It affects both physically and mentally. It also causes health and safety […]
Inflatable Refugee Tents

A new refugee tent has been designed by the team at M2B Inflatable in Sofia, Bulgaria. This refugee tent is inflatable and will offer an affordable, dignified and practical shelter against extreme weather. The inflatable tent provides immediate emergency housing solutions and adapts to any disaster area. The inflated walls of the tent will offer […]
The Modern Yurk – A Possible Design for Relief Scenarios?

The Scottish company Trakke has redeveloped the nomadic yurt shelter and created the Jero Yurt. The temporary housing innovation is a lightweight dwelling that pops up and was designed to be used for events such as backyard parties or off-grid camping experiences with a modern twist. The Jero’s compact design even allows it to be […]
innonatives first challenge winners 2015

The innonatives team is proud to present the first winners of the first completed innonatives challenge. Please see here for the winning solutions of the Sustainable Kitchen challenge http://innonatives.com/challenge/sus-brazil/solutions-sorted/winners Congratulations to the winners !!! Your innonatives Team
AIDF Disaster relief infographic d4d

Download & share the #infographic on the importance of #PPPs & #tech in disaster management: http://bit.ly/1qj6Evn http://ow.ly/i/6Ku5d
PowerCube Pop-up Solar Generator Provides Relief to Disaster-Struck Areas

It was seven years ago that Ecosphere Technologies revealed its first iteration of a self-contained relief unit for disaster-struck areas. The company has since been busy refining the system’s form and function and has now announced the completion of what it says to be the world’s largest deployable solar power generator. Capable of generating 15 […]
Sustainability Maker needs you !

Join the next big thing! Attend the first Sustainability Maker Convention, the world’s first conference on Open Innovation, Crowd Sourcing and Crowd Funding for Sustainability. Be among the first to witness the start of the next Sustainability innovation movement and to know about the www.innonatives.com open innovation for Sustainability platform. Registration Please register online before October […]

Introduction

Disasters such as, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, famines and wars cause destruction and suffering to humankind. Whether these are natural and inevitable, or man-made and unnecessary, we can improve our means of reacting and aiding the victims affected.

This website is to function as a source of information and a communication platform for exchanging knowledge, experience, ideas and projects. How can we design life in a way that we are better prepared and have better infrastructure, methods to avoid damage, suffering and death tolls?

Short and direct

Habitat for Humanity helps Haiti

Three years ago, Haiti was hit by a devastating earthquake of magnitude 7.0. Habitat for Humanity was able to help more than 200,000 people. Just recently the “Jimmy Carter Project 2012” took place. Though recovery has been slow and arduous, progress is visible in the new community of Santo. In February 2012, 155 families moved from […]

Hangout

Hangout is a semi-permanent shelter which combines the practicality of a tent and the safety and comfort of a house. It was designed as a solution to accommodate the influx of tourists visiting an urban area during the period that it hosts a festival. Hangout consists of a tarpaulin which is stretched in-between two wooden facades. one side […]

Map of Life

Map of Life is built with the technology of Google Maps. The pilot of the Map of Life website allows users to map the global distribution of almost all 30,000 species of terrestrial vertebrate animals, including mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and North American fresh water fish. The platform is meant to inform users about the […]

Habitat for Humanity

Habitat for Humanity International is a nonprofit, Christian organization that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness from the world and to make decent shelter a matter of conscience and action worldwide. Habitat has built and renovated more than 500,000 homes around the world, providing more than 2.5 million people with safe, decent, affordable shelter. […]

Earthbag building solutions

EarthKaya is dedicated in providing low cost, low impact, earth bag building solutions in South Africa. Less time, less impact, less cost. In a world where organic agriculture is more expensive than traditional crops, solar panels are often costly to install and electric cars are inconvenient to run, many people may be reluctant to ‘go […]

Harvest water out of dry

Dutch entrepreneur Pieter Hoff retired from exporting flowers and turned to invention. His invention, Groasis Waterboxx is basically a 20-inch by 10-inch polypropylene box that captures water from the air in order to support the growth of new plants and trees. The inspiration for this box is modeled after the way excrement protects seeds that […]

Recovering Tohoku

After the Tohoku Kanto great earthquake (on March 11, 2011, at 2:46 pm local time), a magnitude 9.0 earthquake (7 shindo on the japanese scale) occurred off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture in Japan. It was followed by a huge tsunami. This earthquake is the strongest ever recorded in japan, and the fourth largest recorded […]

Mobile Hospital

A new hospital typology has been designed by the team of Hord Coplan Macht + Spevco that eliminates the need for a standard hospital. In their design, 58 trailers provide a fully operational, fully mobile 48-bed hospital. The trailers include every aspect of a hospital – from waiting gift shops, to surgical suites with four […]

Shelter Centre

Shelter Centre is a non-governmental organization registered in Switzerland that supports the sector of humanitarian operations that responds to the transitional settlement and reconstruction needs of populations affected by conflicts and natural disasters, from the emergency phase until durable solutions are reached. – The activities of Shelter Centre The 2006 – 2011 programme supports the […]

Monash Disaster Resilience Initiative

The Monash Disaster Resilience Initiative (MDRI) has been established to harness university-wide expertise with the goal of strengthening community-based disaster resilience. The aim is to provide the expertise to shape new approaches to disaster preparedness and management under the context of the Council of Australian Governments’ National Strategy for Disaster Resilience. This will […]

Disaster management with fireballs from Intel

These spherical, rugged, low-cost and autonomous sensors from Intel are designed to be thrown into a fire and report back data such as temperature, free-volatiles and air quality to first responder trucks via WiFi. Vital information such as the hottest spot and the chemical composition of a fire can be sent to both the firefighters’ smartphones and […]

ad – hab+

adaptable habitat for aid distribution in crisis areas – 2011 ad – hab+ is an adaptable, mobile, multifunctional and lightweight habitation system primarily for aid distribution in catastrophic and crisis areas. The shape is bionic, inspired by and further developed out of polyhedrical foam structures. Due to the geometry, technical and spatial clustering of several units […]

Tulip Siphon Water Filter

An innovative, low-cost water filter for families in developing countries Hundreds of millions of people still only have access to unsafe drinking water sources. Inadequate access to safe water and sanitation services, coupled with poor hygiene practices, kills and sickens thousands of children every day and leads to impoverishment and diminished opportunities for millions of […]

Palliative Radiotherapy for Developing Countries

The world is facing a crisis in cancer management that concerns developing countries in particular. The average life expectancy in developing countries is increasing in a predictable way. Data from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) indicates that cancer incidence in developing countries will increase dramatically in the first two decades of this […]

Paper Partition System

SHIGERU BAN ARCHITECTS are currently preparing to deploy simple partitions for evacuees taking shelter at gymnasiums in the Tohoku region. For people taking shelter in these sites, it is necessary to avoid distress from the lack of privacy and high density. SHIGERU BAN ARCHITECTS asks for support of this important disaster relief endeavor. Donations made to the following […]

Tsunami House Living Room

In order to be better prepared for disasters, primarily focused on resistance to tsunamis, the resistance disaster house was designed to safeguard families living in vulnerable coastal areas in Japan. This resistance disaster house design was designed to resist disaster and to provide shelter from natural disasters. This Tsunami house resistance design is located in […]

Viva Con Agua Brings Clean Water to Rwanda – Water is Life

Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli is a charitable organisation based in St. Pauli, Hamburg (Germany), campaigning for clean drinking water worldwide. Besides the air we breathe, water is the most fundamental source of life. Water creates life, water is life. Water means healthy living, happy living. For Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli this […]

Bioplastic from Banana Peels – Designed by 16-year-old Girl to Reduce Environmental Pollution

Pollution from plastics is one of the most serious forms of environmental destruction. From large plastic debris to miniscule polymers, plastic is destroying the planet and creating disaster zones for people and animals. Although much irreversible damage has already been done, Elif Bilgin a 16-year-old science student from Istanbul, Turkey has developed a simple method […]

HOMELESSFONTS from HOMELESSFONTS on Vimeo.

Homelessfonts – A Sustainable Design Initiative for Homeless Support

The Arrels foundation was developed in 1987 to aid homeless people in the city of Barcelona, Spain. Focusing on housing, food, social services and health care, the entity has led more than 8,000 homeless people towards an autonomous future. The ultimate goal of the organization is to end homelessness so that no one is left […]

Drinkable Book

The Drinkable Book is a life saving tool that filters water and teaches proper sanitation & hygiene to those in the developing world. Each book is printed on technologically advanced filter paper, capable of killing deadly waterborne diseases. Each page is coated with silver nanoparticles, whose ions actively kill diseases like cholera, typhoid and E. […]

InterAction’s NGO Aid Map

InterAction’s NGO Aid Map aims to increase the amount of publicly available data on international development and humanitarian response by providing detailed project information of our coalition members through interactive maps and data visualizations. The project began with the Food Security Map in 2009 – see the history here. Here is more information about the project data and FAQs. NGO […]

WarkaWater2

‘WarkaWater2’ is a 12m tall structure that produces potable water from the air. It is conceived for communities in rural areas in Ethiopia which lack access to safe drinking water. The name is inspired from the giant Ethiopian fig tree ‘Warka’ traditionally used for public gatherings. The tower weights around 90kg and consists of 5 […]

CarbonStory tells you if your address is under water

CarbonStory is a social enterprise fighting climate change by letting members sponsor projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions.

Rebuild by Design

Rebuild by Design, an initiative of the Hurricane Sandy Rebuilding Task Force and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, addresses structural and environmental vulnerabilities that Hurricane Sandy exposed in communities throughout the region, and develops fundable solutions to better protect residents from future climate events. Because of the enormity of this challenge, the […]

Foldscope – a paper based microscope

The Foldscope can be assembled from a flat sheet of paper in under 10 minutes. “Although it costs less than a dollar in parts, it can provide over 2,000X magnification with submicron resolution, weighs less than two nickels, is small enough to fit in a pocket, requires no external power, and can survive being dropped from […]

Track Deforestation on Google Maps

Global Forest Watch (GFW) is a dynamic online forest monitoring and alert system that empowers people everywhere to better manage forests. For the first time, Global Forest Watch unites satellite technology, open data, and crowdsourcing to guarantee access to timely and reliable information about forests. GFW is free and follows an open data approach in […]

IKEA program seeks to brighten lives of refugees in UN camps

A two-month campaign to raise funds to provide solar-powered lighting in refugee camps run by the UN has been launched by an international home-furnishings company. The IKEA Foundation will donate just over one US dollar to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) for every LED light bulb it sells in its stores around the world. The […]

Rethink relief

Rethink Relief is an intense design workshop dedicated to creating technologies for humanitarian relief that specifically address the gap between short-term relief and long-term sustainable development. This hands-on event is an unique opportunity for practitioners, designers and recipients of humanitarian aid to engage and develop a holistic approach to relief that considers the transition from emergency […]