The “shell”

competition: “Design It: Shelter Competition”_ Guggenheim Museum and Google SketchUp

team: Anastasia Fragkoudi, Dimitrios Raidis, Polina Ioakeimidou

The “shell” was a project designed for the competition “Design It: Shelter Competition” held by Guggenheim Museum and Google SketchUp in June-September 2009. The competition was an extension of Learning By Doing, an exhibition in the Guggenheim Museum Sackler Center for Arts Education that featured plans, photographs, and models of student-built shelters from the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. The project specs were the design of a small shelter 9.3 sq.m. for one person providing a place to study and sleep. The “shell” is a portable shelter consisting of three elements: the “canopy”, the “fan” and the “retreat”. 

It opens up gradually as a see-shell extending its components, transforming into a shelter. The transparent “canopy” incorporates shaders protecting the interior from the sun. The walls take the form of elastic fans and the interior is shaped from a moulded surface that is organized into a sleeping and a studying area.

According to the proportions and needs of the human body of the occupant the moulded surface of the interior can be customized without losing it’s primary character. The form and shape of the “shell” is neutral and characterless allowing it to adapt to any location and environmental context.