This is Paul Elkins and he is a sort of inventor. He likes to invent useful things that can be used in everyday life. This is him standing in his Coroplast teepee. This would be used in emergency situations to get a sturdy shelter whenever you are short on time and need to get shelter immediately.
Paul loves to invent anything that can be used at a moment’s notice. This is a foldable coroplast boat that weighs about eight pounds when fully assembled. Coloplast is just a cheap plastic that can be found at any hardware store, such as Lowes. The cost of this boat to make is about $30 and when folded is small enough to fit in a car’s trunk.
This is a homemade survival kit that Paul created. It comes with just about everything you would need to survive for a few days even up to a week in an unknown area. The survival kit including water proof matches, fishing line, fishing hooks, compos, flashlight, water purification pills, and a condom and nylon holster for collecting water.
Swiftly Constructing released an exercise to create a very cheap but useful semi airtight stove. The idea was to use minimal tools; all that was used to create the stove was a screwdriver and a rock to punch out a vent hole and a hacksaw to cut the electrical conduit. Total cost to construct the stove is about $35.
Paul makes many things because of contest challenges. This a mobile bicycle camper made for the burning man contest. The theme for the burning man that year was hopes and fears of the future. Paul chose fear and this was around the bird flu epidemic This would be used to escape society and live in the wild for a period of time.
Several months later Paul’s bicycle camper was starting to get recognized by many website. Designboom later released a challenge for designers called “shelter-in-a-cart”. The challenge was to meet the demands for the ever expanding homeless society.
So what Paul has created here is a mobile homeless shelter for the project challenge Designboom released. That is equipped with everything one might need in-order to live out on the streets and still have a home away from home. This shelter was designed with the artistic homeless person in mind so they could create and sell crafts.
This is the back view of the mobile homeless shelter. What you see right here is a window with a shelf so that the homeless person can put their crafts on display in the window to lure in customers. This way both the front and the back can be potential selling points.
This is a close up of the inside while the mobile homeless shelter is still under construction. You can see that there is a great deal of space in such a small confined place. As you can see, the mobile homeless shelter is made all most entirely of wood. All the wood is treated so that if it were to get wet, it would not start to rot.
This is Kitchen area of the homeless shelter while it is still under construction. You can see that it has a place to cook and some storage space. With a build in water contain in order to store water so that you can stay hydrated and with many storage compartments to keep other various living things.
This is the completed kitchen. You can see that there has been a water spigot added. A mirror and a place to hold toothbrushes and other bathroom supplies. Paul installed a battery operated light over the sink area. Next to the cooking area Paul has installed a wall that swivels so that the water cooling is concealed.
This is a close up of the sink and spigot. As you can see it is just a trash can with a trash bag in it to catch the water. This way there is no water sitting in the bottom of the trash can so that mildew forms. The water for spigot comes from the roof of the shelter that can catch rain water and it runs from a line down to the spigot itself.
This gives you a better idea of how Paul is trying to fit as much as possible into a very small area. You can see that he has made an area underneath the upper shelf for a cutting board to slide in and out for easy access and room saving. This also gives you good look at the craftsmanship put into the mobile shelter.
This is the other side of the mobile homeless shelter that we have yet to see. Paul has put a hook on the other side of the sink in order to hang a lighter. He has also installed vents so that it doesn’t get too stuffy inside and during the hot months it can let a cool breeze inside as well. Plus suffocation is bad too.
This is an ice box that has been installed underneath the counter next to the window. It is not powered in anyway; it is strictly an insulated cooler. It is designed to keep cold things cold and hot things hot. And it also has easy access without taking up excess room in the homeless shelter.
This is the toilet area of the mobile homeless shelter. It is just a simple bucket with a handle with a wooden toilet seat for convenience. It is stored away in a compartment underneath the water cooler. However the bucket can be used for many other things than just going to the bathroom. Such as collecting materials or hauling water.
This is the overview of the entire completed mobile homeless shelter. Here you can get a good idea of where everything goes and how much space can be packed into such a small area. You can really see how much is hidden away and how functional this cart can really be to the homeless.
Much hasn’t really been said about the laying area of the cart. This shows that the bed can be converted into a really nice couch for lounging or sharing a seat with a friend. The cushions can be stored away in the space next to the toilet to expose the ground underneath the cart give some bathroom privacy.
Here is Paul showing how he has actually converted the bed into a full seat. It is designed to reveal a hole when the cushions are stacked in this manner. This way your feet hang out of the hole in the bottom and give you a confortable seat. The folding cabinet is now converted into a desk or work area so that you can get whatever work you need to work on done.
In this picture you can see Paul’s friend demonstrating the mobile homeless shelter. You can see that the wheels enable it got off road and go pretty much everywhere. On the two doors that shut, Paul has installed white boards so that artist can show off their work and attract customers.The cost for all the material was around $750.
