Swaying in their hammocks as a 75-mph wind whipped through California's Poly Canyon, Braden Engel and his two classmates were nervous but confident their emergency shelter would stand firm.
It did one better than that.
The shelter designed by Engel, Matt Moore and Neil Reardon - all third-year architecture students at North Dakota State University - won the "Best Overall" award at Cal Poly University's "Design Village" competition in San Luis Obispo.
The challenge was to design and build an emergency dwelling that responds to the needs of disaster relief. Organizers of the event hope it will lead to the development of transitional housing to ease suffering and return people more quickly to a normal way of life.
NDSU was the only team not from California out of about 35 teams, Engel said.
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"I knew we had one of the better projects when I saw them all set up," Reardon said.
The team's main objective was to keep people healthy, dry and safe, Engel said.
"We figured we would work from the top down, since that's where the weather comes from," he said.
They started with a rigid roof made of corrugated metal with a piece of semi-transparent polycarbonate board for a skylight.
To keep people off the cold, wet ground, the students lashed hammocks to the three A-frames supporting the shelter. The frames, made of two-by-fours, fold up like an accordion for easy transport, said Engel, a Bismarck native.
"We had to hike it down a canyon and live in it for two nights, so we had to be able to carry it pretty easily," he said.
The shelter, dubbed "Versiflex," scored extra points with judges for its hand-sewn covering made out of ripstop nylon, a material commonly used in parachutes, Engel said.
Because they had to ship the shelter to California via FedEx, no piece could be more than 7 feet long, which limited the design, Engel said.
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The team also was late getting started on the project, putting it together in about two and a half weeks at a cost of slightly less than $700, with funding assistance from NDSU, he said.
This was the university's first time entering the competition, held in mid-April.
"I think it's definitely something we'd like the NDSU architecture department to continue," Reardon said.
The Best Overall award earned the team no cash, only a "trophy" consisting of three pieces of metal and a water bottle with the red-cross symbol for medicine on it.
The real reward, Engen said, was the experience.
"It really helped us for hands-on building," he said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Mike Nowatzki at (701) 241-5528
