IFRC Family tent (old design) set up for product design exploration session on 5 March 2020
To kickstart design of the products to be used for insulating tents, Engineers Without Borders Norway invited project partners and a range of topical experts within plastic product design, fire retardancy, and architecture for a two-day product exploration session in Oslo.
The session was set up for the team to get first hand knowledge of the tent designs and to look at strategies for formatting Polyfloss material to integrate with
existing tents.
Andrew Lamb (Filed Ready) and Antonella Vitale (IFRC -Shelter Research Unit)
Martin Gautron and Oliver Edwards presenting early ideas
Over the course of the two days 15 participants helped propose, sketch out and rapidly prototype different insulation strategies such a s floor tiles and wall-mounted bags with compressed material to learn more about the possibilities and limitations of the material. Other learnings included considerations of fire retardancy, strategies to format and attach the material and logistics of small scale production in the field.
Designer Marcus Martinuzzi making a mold for prototype floor tiles
Architect Carle Lange and Polyfloss’ Nick Paget
Floor tile prototype
Floor tile and mold
Polyfloss sown into locally sourced bags to be mounted inside tent walls
Testing early ideas of formatting