D E S I G N FOR D I S A S T E R
DESIGN STORY Due to climate change, the weather condition is getting more and more severe. In Taiwan, typhoon is a common natural disaster and the flood takes away people’s live every year. In most cases, flood victims have enough time to escape but they do not have useful and effective tools to assist them. Therefore, I decide to design a “flood conquer” which is a six-pack plastic pumping boxes that, by combing it with your existing furniture, you can turn it into a ‘’buoyant apparatus’’. In this case, even people with low income can afford to build thier own life saving gear.
WHY BUOYANT APPARATUS When flood happens at suburban area, there is only one way that people can be saved. It is floating on water for a longer time and wait for rescue. A buoyant apparatus is the best choice because it can load much more victims than other rescue tools and it is strong enough to prevent from broken. Thus, I choose it to research and design in this project.
DESIGN PROCESS
BRANCH CHART
5W1H
MIND MAP
MARKET RESEARCH
SWOT ANALYSIS
CONCEPT
OBSERVATION
SKETCH
3D RENDERING
OPERATION INSTRUCTION
EXPLODED VIEW
BRANCH
CHART
WHO
WHAT
WHERE
I identify my target customers the family who lives in suburban area.
A lightweight, folding, six-pack plastic box that you can easily turn into a buoyant apparatus by combing it with your existing furniture.
The suburban area that has higher chance to encounter flood.
WHY
HOW
WHEN
Most household do not have an efficient, useful and multi-fuctional bouyant apparatus at home.
When storm is coming, a family can use ‘’flood conquer’’ to flee from calamity and wait for rescue.
When the flood happens, water will cover the whole area and even higher than one floor.
WHO
WHAT
WHERE
WHY
HOW
WHEN
LIFEBUOY LIGHT LIFE RAFT
LIFEBOAT BUOY LINE
LIFE RAFT BUOY WHISTLE
RESCUE CAN
RESCUE TUBE LIFE BUOY
LIFE JACKET
FIRST AID KIT
MARKET
RESEARCH Emergency
Multi-function
Safety
Connection
Flexibility
Safety
Flexibility
Multi-function
SWOT
ANALYSIS
OPPORTUNITIES
WEAKNESSES emergency situation flexibility limited capacity
Safety
STRENGTH colorful convenience various products suit for different conditions
W
S O T
Emergency
Multi-function
Connection
Flexibility THREATS hydraulic engineering scubagear
It is the most important event that the buoyant apparatus must be strong enough to prevent from broken. In a serious flood, victims don’t have much time to escape, so the buoyant apparatus requires no adjustment or preparation to use. Flood is not a nomal condition. If people buy a buoyant apparatus, it would take up space in a house. Therefore, I suggest it can be multi-function. In the surbuban, it is so wide that rescue workers are hard to find the victims. So, the connection to other people is crucial in a serious flood disaster. When flood is happening, everything floats on the water and it is in a mass. The buoyant apparatus must be flexible for different situations.
OBSERVATION
When flood is happening, people figure out many ways to prevent themselve from drowning. They catch planks, plastic bottles or anything that can float on water and turn them into a buoy apparatus. Since most components that they use to make a buoy apparatus are furniture from the house, this gives me a chance to research what kinds of furniture can be a component or a functional buoy apparatus.
CONCEPT Catch the dining table and bed in the house When flood is happening, we can see lots of furniture floating on the water, and they are a kind of security tool. After my obsevation of all kinds of furniture in a house, I found that a dining table or a bed can be used as a life boat beacuse its large surface can accomadate people and they are strong enough to save more life. To buy a lifeboat and put it in the house is expensive and may take up space, so I want to design a product which can integrate with dinning table and bed. Also, this product is multi-functional, thus it will be useful on a daily basis.
1
2
3
4
5
6
MINE
MAP
Buy a main Body
Screw it with your existing furniture
Equip with the box
Extend and rotate the fixed bar
Remove the pull tab and the ballons inflates
EXPLODED
VIEW
Automatic
Inflation
Box Drawer
3
CO2 cylinder
First -aid kit
1 Life box
2
Fixed Rotate
Bar
Main
3
Extend
2
1
Body