Name: Nich Sandoval Major: Architecture Year: 3rd Year Email: [email protected]
About the Designer: I’m a third year architecture student at Washington State University from Lacey, WA. The many personal, educational, and professional construction projects I have contributed to have shaped who I am and who I want to be. I watch football almost religiously and I’m addicted to tea.
Modular Shelter
My approach to designing a portable design option for the homeless was to first research different foldable materials and methods that have been tested and implemented. My project started by scaling up my research on parametric origami and scaling down my research of temporary military shelters. When thinking about the application of my design, I aimed to provide a disposable and placeless, but strong and secure structure. In addition to addressing those basic needs, I wanted to allow for a more humanizing approach to addressing community, light, and attractiveness through a modular and multipurpose structure. I was particularly drawn to the idea of having a pop-up shop, and with my modular approach, different configurations could be made by the user to better adjust to each location. The two main configurations would be oriented either vertically or horizontally, with different customizations being achieved in each. Given more time, I would focus on an attempt to make the manual interaction more efficient, and the design lighter.