Portable housing : an exploration into lightweight housing for remote scientific research

Abstract

This thesis proposes the design of portable housing for use in scientific research applications in remote locations. Currently, remote research is conducted from tents or other portable shelters. Larger, more hospitable structures are often too heavy or bulky to carry to these locations. This thesis proposes a shelter that is lightweight, packable, and biodegradable. The shelter is constructed of cardboard panels, which can easily be left to decompose in most environments, or can be recycled after use. The shelter is meant to last only for one season (up to six months), and then be recycled. The shelter requires upkeep on a weekly basis to maintain its waterproofness, and responds to the climatic changes of its surroundings by opening or closing as temperature and conditions warrant. It is, hopefully, much more livable than a tent.

This thesis explores a method of studying the city of Banaras, located in the north-central part of India, through Satyajit Ray's movie Aparajito (1957). This method attempts to disengage the all-subsuming sacred aura of Banaras to reveal underlying historic and cultural formations. As the inter-play between the movie and the city excavates peripheral discourses engrained in the film, these discourses are further subjected to the aesthetic parameters of Ray. His engagement with traditional practices and the psychology of individuals re-structure different cultural and spatial aspects of Banaras. Through the simultaneously engagement with the aesthetics of the film and Banaras multiple readings are formed. This process of re-aestheticizing Banaras reaches its conclusion in are-edited 'Aparajito'. By inhabiting the film I attempt to reveal the manner in which Ray positions and contextualizes the characters of the film to the city and its culture.