Shelter Bus | Mobile Residency

Above is the final product but first we shall start from the beginning and walk you through my process.







The above five images are from my sketch book showing the different thoughts that were going through my head. Not only did I sketch and made notes on important issues and the nesseceties on which I though should be included in the shelter bus.



After sketching a little while it came time to determine my concept which would determine the design of the interior. I found this actually to be quiet difficult. I began creating lists for the main areas, in which I felt were nessecary, to see if any commonalities existed between them. Finally with a few key words such as seclusion, privacy, relaxation, I was able to decide on a concept.

[Out of Sight, Out of Mind] Concept Statement

What is [out of sight is therefore out of mind]. This Shelter bus does not just tend to the general needs like sleeping and eating but it does include these with in the space, just in a more integrated manner. These disaster relief volunteers will most likely be extremely exhausted and possibly emotional due to the conditions of the community in which they are working to help repair. The experience one will feel when they cross the thresh-hole into this worry-free habitat is that all of their concerns are to be left outside of the bus. They can enjoy their own company or chose to converse between each other. This temporary residency will succeed in this concept by the use of skylights to provide a majority of the lighting. Reasoning for skylights is that while on the bus one is unable to look out and see the destruction, damage, and problems that are occurring, only positive aspects. An element continuous throughout the design is the idea of curves creating forms and working to close and seclude a specific area. These volunteers deserve the right to a certain designated space where time is spent relaxing in a personal approach in which becomes their own residency within the broader shelter bus residency. So through this statement the shelter bus is arranged into four specific areas each with a different need in mind. They are as follows: sleeping, bathing/restroom, kitchen/dining, and living area/work gathering area. With these clear-cut necessities taken into consideration the bus almost instantly becomes divided among public verses private areas. As a side note each of the spaces are capable of being transformed into more of a private space.



I then created a simple but to the point floor plan in which became the underlay for a Private|Public diagram. In this diagram each of the four main sections are surrounded by a dashed line. Certain incidents occur where two rooms' borders overlap which means they share their general purpose. From this it became obvious that two distinct areas would create the buses environment. These two areas were a private area and a Public area. Although the kitchen/living area are considered public I decided that it would be nessecary to have the option of making each of these more of a private space if needed be.



From this point in time I began creating sectional views to better communicate my design for this shelter bus.







One of the most important features of this design is a wall that can be pulled out from the main shell walls that helps to close off or partially close off an area to make the space more private. What makes the wall so interesting is that it functions like a zipper. When it is being pushed into the wall every other board goes a certain direction and when it is being pulled out the boards pile together to create a solid surface. Two of these doors separate the living area from the kitchen and then one is at the other end of the kitchen closing off the kitchen from the private portion of the bus. The doors to the bathrooms function in a similar way except instead of separating they just slide in one direction. The beds also have a similar feature which closes each compartment up. In a curve-like manner the door comes from above and close the cubby. These movable walls and doors help bring forth the concept of this design because they serve the purpose of providing comfort to the four relief workers by giving them the option on have private they would like to feel.