This helmet designed to provide protection during earthquakes is inspired by ancient Roman military tactics

This piece of multifunctional protective equipment designed to provide wearable shielding from falling debris during earthquakes was inspired by ancient Roman military tactics.

The testudo, or tortoise formation, was a type of shield wall formation commonly used by the Roman legions during military blockades, or sieges. Similar to a tortoiseshell, the soldiers would position their shields to form a fully enclosed shell that offered coverage on all sides as well overhead. The testudo was used to protect Roman soldiers from arrows and missiles as they slowly marched in unison towards a city’s gates or remained stationary in defense.

Designer: Seunghwan Ra

Recognizing the protective nature of the testudo formation, one designer found modern use for the ancient military tactic in emergency situations, like earthquakes. Named after its inspiration, Testudo is a physical shield and helmet piece designed by Korean designer Seunghwan Ra for earthquake response.

Considering all the elements that go into assuring safety following an earthquake, Ra had his work cut out for him. If designing earthquake safety equipment wasn’t enough, Ra incorporated a multifunctional element to keep the piece of equipment within arm’s reach year-round.

Initially functioning as a wall-mounted light fixture, Testudo’s first safety element is light. As Ra states, “A ray of light is always a right signifier to those [who] panic.” Think lighthouses, flashlights, and even the natural safety of sunlight.

During natural disasters, especially earthquakes, a source of light is a beacon of hope, guiding survivors to safety, even if it just takes them from Point A to Point B. When an earthquake hits, Testudo will remain alight on the wall for users to easily seek it out and employ its safety measures.

Once detached from the wall, Testudo reveals a size and shape similar to bike helmets, allowing users to place it over their heads and cover their shoulders as well. Once the helmet’s handle is pulled down to the user’s chest, integrated airbags will inflate and become rigid for cushioned protection.

Once the helmet has fully inflated, each user’s vital organs are shielded from falling debris. The backside of the helmet particularly offers protection for the cervical spinal area. A headlamp also provides ample guiding light for escaping danger zones.

Following multiple ideations, Ra finally settled on inflatable protective cushioning. 

Moving on from mats, Ra found flexibility in inflatable coverings.

From there, Ra actualized Testudo’s first prototype.

The post This helmet designed to provide protection during earthquakes is inspired by ancient Roman military tactics first appeared on Yanko Design.

These prefabricated homes are built to provide deployable shelter in the wake of natural disaster

A-Fold’s line of prefabricated homes come in two models and are designed to provide earthquake relief as well as to withstand a natural disaster.

Ranging from disused shipping containers to DIY flat-pack houses, prefabricated homes provide an efficient way of building houses without losing the distinct charm of traditionally built homes. Designed in response to events like natural disasters, prefabricated homes can be built offsite and then transported without impacting the environment around them.

Designer: A-Fold x Nico D’Incecco

In this way, prefabricated homes provide sufficient, deployable shelter for individuals in need. In 2009, when an earthquake left 40,000 people homeless in Central Italy, Nico D’Incecco and the team at A-Fold relied on prefabricated construction methods to design a home that can unfold in a matter of hours and provide anti-seismic security.

At the height of the pandemic, A-Fold launched the designs for their line of prefabricated homes that includes two bi-level cabins. Model A, the first of the two to be released, is a traditional A-frame cabin and ranges in size from 51 sqm to 125 sqm. Model T is named for its trapezoid shape and its smallest size is slightly larger than Model A’s, coming in at 52 sqm while its largest size is 127 sqm.

Like most prefabricated homes, Model A and Model T from A-Fold are both constructed offsite and transported via truck to the home’s destination. Then, each home is mounted atop a screw piles system foundation, which consists of metal poles that spiral sectors are attached to and then driven deep into the ground.

Through this type of foundation, the homes can be folded back up at any moment just as easily as they were unfolded, allowing residents to take their homes with them. While the very build of the home is built to withstand natural disasters like earthquakes through a system of massive hinge connections, the home’s portability can also be of aid during evacuations.

Buyers can choose from an array of different finishes for the home’s roof, floors, and facades. Depending on the buyer’s taste, the roof can keep a modern look with Isogrecata metal paneling or a more traditional look with bitumen roof tiles.

Each model’s flooring can also completely change the look and mood of the home. Those who tend toward cozier interior design can choose between engineered hardwood flooring and carpeting. Besides that, buyers can opt for vinyl, LVT wood flooring, or linoleum paneling. Then, each home can either be clad in spruce shingles, stone or be given a floor-to-ceiling window facade.

Buyers can choose from an array of different flooring panels, from linoleum to hardwood. 

The silhouette of Model T gives the model’s interior lofty ceilings and a unique shape.

Inside, Scandinavian-inspired interior design elements give the home an airy, spacious feel.

Overhead eaves provide roofs for the semi-enclosed terraces.

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A school-desk that turns into a safety shelter during an earthquake

You never really know what sort of curveballs the year 2020 can throw at you. I mean we’ve had forest fires, a pandemic, murder hornets, there was a massive fireball spotted in the sky in Japan yesterday… so a mindset of preparedness is really our best shot at this point.

In that very vein, the Life Triangle Desk gives children the instant shelter they need in the event of a natural disaster at school. The desk looks and functions like any writing desk, but in the event of a quake or tremor (or honestly, even an attack on a school in a war-torn area), the desk converts into a secure triangle-shaped shelter against falling debris or shrapnel. In the event of a calamity, the desk surface can be lifted up to unlock it, allowing it to slide down, creating a triangular space underneath. Given that triangles are a naturally stable shape, the desk helps protect children from any large falling items by deflecting them. The desk also helps rescue teams who will instinctively know to check underneath them for victims and survivors.

The Life Triangle Desk is a winner of the Golden Pin Design Award for the year 2020.

Designers: Rui Sun, Wen Zhang, Guan-Chen Zhang, Er-Xuan Liu & Yu-Chao Li

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Seismologist Suggests Using Crowdsourced Cat Data to Detect Earthquakes

Scientists will tell you that no human or animal can accurately predict an impending earthquake before it starts. However, certain animals are far more sensitive to seismic activities than humans. With that in mind, one seismologist has tossed out a wildly impractical but amusing idea for an early earthquake alert system – using cats.

PhD geophysics student Celeste Labedz posted her idea in a multi-part Twitter thread last week, and it’s well worth a read. She hypothesizes that since cats are more sensitive than humans to the weaker P-waves that happen when an earthquake is starting, that we could harness unusual cat behavior to create an early warning system. The same idea could theoretically work with dogs, but they have a tendency to be more active than cats, which could result in more false positive readings.

Labedz proposes the name PURRS (Pet-based Urban Rapid Response to Shaking) for her system. The idea is that millions of cats would be equipped with Fitbit-style Bluetooth sensors, which would detect when kitties are acting abnormally. A centralized system would take that sensor data and look for common patterns among multiple cats in the area, and should a certain threshold be reached, it could issue an alert that an earthquake is imminent. Such a network would provide many more data points and density than current early warning systems, and way more cats.

Celeste fully acknowledges that her idea would be incredibly difficult and costly to implement, but that’s why it’s merely a concept. I still love the idea of crowdsourcing pet-based data for something, since they do seem to be more sensitive to certain stimuli than humans.

Thanks to my rocket scientist friend Susan for tipping me off to this wonderfully entertaining thread.

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