PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
Background
Tree of Life is a universal system, the construction of which can be infinitely varied according to local culture and conditions. The design is a basic unit providing basic human needs for water and shelter. The intent is that people will be able to construct this shelter with no outside help. With the people taking resettlement into their own hands, aid agencies can now focus their attention on providing food instead of volunteer intensive refugee camps.
Inspiration
Each culture in each region of the Earth has a traditional basic form of basic shelter based on local resources. The Tree of Life bases its form and details on traditional temporary and portable shelters. Clustering of units allows for different varieties of groups and can easily change over time.
Components:
Partitions: Created from triangles like branches.
PV Cells: Stock solar garden lights for evening lighting
Hose: Hose made from fabric or plastic to lead water to storage containers or out to ground during heavy rain.
Filter: Standard household or camping water filter runs in line from hose to container of from container to cup. Container must be supplied with clean rocks to mineralize the rainwater.
Cover: Canvas, rugs, linens, plastic sheeting tyvek, tarp leather, felt leaves.
Branches: Wood, sticks, tree trunks, saplings, precut lumber, conduit, PVC, tubing, bamboo, steel.
Connections: Rope, nails,screws, twine, welding, cut wood joinery.
Column: same materials as branches.
Base: old trees, rubble, rocks, hole in the ground, earth.
Architecture is supposed to provide shelter. In early 1999, nowhere was the need for shelter more critical than in the war-torn region of Kosovo. Hundreds of thousands were without a place to live. Their homes in ruins and the infrastructure of the region collapsed, the returning population needed immediate and highly-dispersed temporary housing.
Architecture for Humanity hosted an open competition to design five-year transitional housing for the returning people of Kosovo. The competition's goal was to foster the development of housing methods that would relieve suffering and speed the transition back to a normal way of life. Architects and designers from 30 different countries responded. We received more than 200 designs. From these, a jury selected 10 finalists and 20 notable entries. The proposal from Basak Altan and Mark Schirmer of San Diego, California was one of these ten finalists.
