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Tent Trials

Work going on in the Department in conjunction with the School of Architecture on the 'Design of a cold climate emergency shelter for refugees', sprang to prominence last year when the fourth year student involved, Rachel Battilana, won the award for 'Best Civil Engineering Student' from the Institution of Civil Engineers. The project was praised for demonstrating the compassionate face of civil engineering today.

Fortunately, the work is on-going, sponsored by the EPSRC and supervised by Allan McRobie from CUED. All three students who have been involved through their fourth year projects since 1999 are still committing their own time and effort to it and in Rachel's case with the support of her employer, Buro Happold.

Allan McRobie explains: "The EPSRC grant is to conduct field trials on the use of the tent liners we have developed. These will effectively insulate the tents that are currently used, at relatively low cost, preventing deaths due to extremely low temperatures. Joseph Ashmore, a researcher from the school of Architecture who is deeply committed to this project, made an exploratory trip to Afghanistan this Spring, with the support of the International Committee of the Red Cross. Although the worst of the winter weather was over, he was able to make a valuable study of the people in the camps (one of which had a population the size of Cambridge). He assessed the variety of tents used, measured temperature and humidity levels inside and out, and interviewed the people on their habits and customs-all of which is vital information for the development of suitable accommodation in the future.

The project does not seek to encourage the use of tents in the housing of refugees (the majority of displaced people are housed in repaired houses, with host families or in collective centres). However, it does seek to improve tents in those few cases when they are used in cold climate emergencies. As well as testing the effectiveness of our tent liners in Afghanistan this winter, we are also talking to the tent manufacturers in Pakistan to see if they can make their tents fully winter-proof from the beginning."

For more information, visit the project website.
Information is also available in the news archive on the Department's home page.