Taking as the focus the possibility of his patented, foldable fiberglass technique for use in resiliency design efforts, Design Topology Lab founder Joseph Choma is once again breaking the mold on a typology that has become increasingly relevant in the era of intensifying natural disasters born out of climate change.

Choma is currently teaching a studio at Clemson that explores the potential of fully deployable shelters for disaster relief with foldable composites.

The studio was split into four parts. The first segment included analyzing the current state of deployable shelters for disaster relief, uncovering what he calls a significant gap between lightweight tents and more permanent dwellings made from prefabricated components. This gap resulted in people usually living in tents a great deal longer than originally anticipated. The challenge for his students then became to answer the question of how flat-packed foldable shelters can be adapted to fill the attendant design needs made by these voids. 

Next, the studio explored the geometric constraints of different structures through the framework of arches, saddles, vaults, and tessellations. Each structure was made with both straight and curved creases and followed by an introduction to the patented fiberglass folding technique, according to Choma.

In the last step, the students developed four designs (vault, cone, cube, and A-frame) while based around four different research “agendas,” including ground anchors, apertures, hinges, and material calibrations.

Per the architect: “The prototype fabrications took five days for four person teams to complete. All of the shelters were made from one continuous flat crease pattern. In other words, a large single flat sheet of fiberglass was folded by hand into an inhabitable shelter. As a material constraint, each team of four students was limited to 232 sq ft of fiberglass. These foldable structures begin to suggest a possible future for deployable shelters for disaster relief.”

The project teams included:

Folded Vault: Tuyen Tram, Vincent Cuffee, Mike Salois, and Xin Gao.

Folded Cone: Casey Pearce, Logan Christensen, Carlo Mellone, and Jacob Bauer.

Folded Cube: Qinming Hou, Chino Ning, Ría Naab, and Breland Land.

Folded A-Frame: Kelly Clark, Jesse Parks, Zach Koeppen, and Sarah Thomas.

Additional project images and a video of the completed structures can be found below.

Video by Tuyen Tram, courtesy Joseph Choma, Clemson University