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Core77‘s latest 1 Hour Design Challenge asked designers to create solutions for pop up emergency shelters to aid those afflicted by a natural disaster such as the Haiti earthquake. Winners were just announced, and Dan Ostrowski took home the honor with his Lifetent, a portable shelter packed into a backpack that also can carry a water supply. Dan’s Lifetent is inflatable, lightweight, easy to transport, and packs away when not in use. If such shelters were to be manufactured, natural disaster refugees would be able to move about in order to find fresh water and food.

The Lifetent is not only portable and lightweight — it also includes a mosquito repellent fabric to stave off malaria, and water storage in the bottom of the tent with an included lifestraw to drink from. Additionally, the backpack contains a GPS unit that rescuers could monitor in order to determine where refugees were located in order to provide better care. The tent easily folds into itself for transport and the potable water can be carried along just like a hiking bladder.

Core77′s latest challenge asked designers to come up with a pop up emergency shelter within 60 minutes, and many great ideas were created. Backpacks were featured several times throughout the entries for good reason — they can be deployed wherever they are needed. Judging was based on “inventiveness, utility and appropriateness,”… and judges were “impressed with the breadth of thinking, the speed of design iteration, and the novel uses of materials and geometries.” In honor of Dan’s win, Core77 will donate $500 to Architecture For Humanity’s Haiti Earthquake Support Program. Congrats to Dan and all the other designers who competed in this challenge.

+ Core77 One Hour Design Challenge

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