MODs: HUD Home Redesign For Arctic Climates
The town of Shishmaref is slowly melting away due to climate change. The town faces the need for relocation as a result. These people have kept their homes in their family for generations. They have a culture that makes use of scarce resources and lives off the land. They were given HUD homes which are meant for typical climate of the United States not arctic climate. They don’t want to leave their homes despite the fact that they are falling apart. Rather than attempting to move the people of Shishmaref out of their homes my team created a series of modifications to existing homes in order to accommodate their needs.
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Shishmaref
While the town faces the prospect of relocations the inhabitants are living in HUD homes that are not appropriate for arctic climate or the needs of the people of Shishmaref. The homes are too small for the average family, don’t have enough storage for the long winters, and are gathering mold due to moisture. This project aimed to make the homes more livable until the town can be relocated.
Concept Iteration
In order to find the solutions that best fit the problem my team created a series of concepts to assist the HUD homes in the town of Shishmaref. We created many models to explore how the modifications might look. In order to analyze the options we wrote down the various details of each idea.
The Arctic Entry
The team decided on two modifications. The first is the arctic entry. This MOD set out to manage both the lack of insulation of the HUD home and the need for more storage space. The arctic entry would be made out of studs and mesh that comes over on the barge. It would act as a vestibule space. During the summer it would simply be a mesh enclosure that can allow for meet to hang from the holes in the mesh. During the winter It would freeze over into a layer of ice. The ice would assist in providing insulation for the home and creating an airlock space between the outdoors and indoors. We performed flow tests in order to find the weak points in our designs and optimize them for the harsh winds in an arctic climate.
Shutter MOD
The second modification is the shutter MOD. It set out to manage both the lack of insulation of the HUD home and the need for more storage space as well. The shutter MOD would be made out of studs that come over on the barge. During the summer it would fold out like a trellis arm of the HUD home to be used to hang meat to dry. During the winter It would fold up against the windows like a double layer shutter to help insulate the home. The windows in the HUD homes are the weakest area for allowing cold air in during the winter.
