Projects

Miguel Ángel @mianfg

Data & Machine Learning Engineer

Dome It!

An integral solution to help refugees' housing

123
date
Dec 2016
role
Co-creator
status
On hold
keywords
architecture, refugees, crisis response

Dome It! is a project designed to improve life in refugee camps. After thoroughly investigating this drama, we have tried to find solutions to a number of serious problems

  • Accommodation: the refugees live in precarious tents.
  • Heating: unfortunately, they have to endure extremely hot and cold temperatures.
  • Water supply: we have developed a productive and practical water supply system.
  • Energy harvesting, to do our bit in the face of climate change and provide more services to the population.
  • Growing food, so essential to people's livelihoods, which can be difficult in some climates.

Picture of Dome It!

To solve these problems, we proceeded to create an optimal solution for the refugee camps consisting of two main parts:

  • EcoDome, a modular, efficient and self-sufficient house, cheap and durable, easy to build and dismantle, with built-in water and energy harvesting systems and vegetable garden, designed to meet the needs of the refugees.
  • VoroMap, a mathematical model to optimally distribute buildings according to the needs of the refugee population, interactive and adaptable, which can be implemented in any camp, even existing ones.

Project elements

EcoDome

EcoDome overview

EcoDome constructions improve the stay of refugees, incorporating a large number of useful and essential features, for a price not much higher than conventional tents, and with greater durability and performance.

Structure

We optimized conventional geodesic structures to facilitate their construction, minimizing the number of tubes and joints. These tubes also act as channels through which water can circulate.

Evolution of structure

On the roof we designed a greenhouse where to grow all kinds of food, in a microclimate independent from the outside and taking advantage of the help of the water collection system.

Garden

The greenhouse roof is made of a specific material to obtain water, which can be used thanks to its potabilization or can be used directly for crop irrigation.

Water recolection

To complete the solution proposed by our project, we have proposed a system for obtaining efficient and ecological energy, as well as reusable, and can also generate fertilizer for crops.

VoroMap

With Voromap, refugee camps can be optimally organized. In this way, we will ensure that the various services are never saturated or, on the contrary, hardly provide any help at all.

VoroMap's algorithm

Team

Dome It! was created as part of Becas Europa XII's selection weekend, together with Aida Arnáiz, Alejandro Fernández, Carmen García, Carmen López and Isabel Sánchez. This project was very well received by the members of the evaluation panel of the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria.

Team

In the media

"There are, therefore, two events here: an interesting and original project, with a social and humanitarian objective, and the fact that this idea and its development come from young, very young students."Diario de Cádiz