Designing With Web - Part 3: week 1

Protect the poorest from climate-related extreme events

Group 85

Project 1: Temporary Habitation in urgent situations

Context

when? where? who? why?

Many people living in places where natural catastrophes are likely to happen don't have houses that are adapted to the climate, to prevent them from losing them. What comes next are real consequences, often on a massive scale : how are all of these families relocated? How are their cities rebuilt? With which funds? No one should have to endure the loss of their home, however, it does happen. We aim to help the victims of natural disasters to get their home back, new and improved. Our ultimate goal is to provide them with weather-resistant houses.

Natural catastrophes aren't, besides, always the ones that first come to our mind : floodings may seem like less harmful than tornadoes, for instance, the infastructures, after being confronted to so much water, can't be considered as decent anymore. This is precisely why we decided to focus on floodings, which are more and more frequent, but aren't always the start of demonstrations of solidarity as huge as those following tsunamis or earthquake.

Target

for whom?

The people living in areas where weather-related extreme events, and who generally don't own a house that is resistant to such events are, with no surprise, the poorest. By poorest, we don't necessarily mean from poor countries, but also people who can't afford insurances and aren't protected against a possible loss of their home. We believe that, even though anyone deserves to have a shelter, those who need it the most rapidely and with the least costs associated are the ones with the most precarious situations. Often, they are relocated to gymnasiums or have to move to be with siblings or family that can house them, but these are limitated and quite dehumanizing options.

Service offered

what? how?

We believe everyone should have a backup solution, no matter how poor they are. This is why we decided to mix the wonders technology has to offer with a humanitarian solution. We are going to use the 3D printing technique to create houses in the blink of an eye : only 24 hours are necessary to create a 60 square meters house, for $4000. The idea already exists, and was born thanks to the start-up ICON. The value we can add to this idea is the network we aim to build and the ease with which we are going to be contacted : the app we created, MyShelter, can be used by those who lost their homes themselves to build the house of their dreams, depending on their needs. NGO have a critical role in this : they are the ones we are going to contact to help spreading the message, and to get funds for the construction of the houses.

This way, it doesn't matter whether the people in question have a smartphone or not : we believe the NGO are going to collaborate with us, as helping one rebuild their house is the most useful thing they could do after a flooding.

Identity

Pick images to describe the universe around your service (context, users, places, techs, …) and name your service accordingly.
Don't try to illustrate the final service that you may have in mind but instead its context.

Benchmark

List concurrents / relative projects and describe how they relate/differentiate to your project

References

books/films/articles/...

Project 2: Castastrophes notifier and help provider

Context

when? where? who? why?

The challenge of protecing poor people from natural disasters is becoming increasingly important because of the lack of infrastructure and social protection means that poor people suffer a double whammy. Solutions need to be put in place to further protect the poorest people who find themselves destitute after a disaster, particularly in the field of agriculture as floods wreak havoc on crops. Warning systems are therefore becoming increasingly necessary, as the newspaper "Le Temps" explains. They save lives and also help to stem the harmful effects of climate change.

Target

for whom?

Our target group includes a diverse group of actors: both poor people who are suffering the disaster and the authorities. The aim is to make communication much more fluid so that each actor can warn others, thus improving disaster management.

Service offered

what? how?

Our service would consist of setting up an application that functions as an alert system that would be collaborative. The application would concern floods. There would be 2 phases: -inform -rescue The application would work using mobile data as it is very likely that the floods would damage power lines and internet access. The principle of the application is that each actor gives as much information as possible about the intensity, the affected area, the difficulties encountered in order to facilitate the control of the authorities and help the inhabitants to be safe.

Identity

Pick images to describe the universe around your service (context, users, places, techs, …) and name your service accordingly.
Don't try to illustrate the final service that you may have in mind but instead its context.

Benchmark

List concurrents / relative projects and describe how they relate/differentiate to your project

References

books/films/articles/...