Lantern House: an Unfolding Emergency Shelter for Nepal

Hi! We are Nigel and Caileigh, two Architecture students at Waterloo! Aiming to adress Nepal's Indigenous housing crisis, this project explores how unfolding, modular structures can provide to remote communities in need. Our goal was to create a shelter that’s not only functional and climate-responsive, but also rooted in respect for local traditions and affordability.

1. Laptop/PC - For running 3D modeling software
2. Fusion 360 - For quickly 3D modelling starting ideas (free for students)
3. Sketchup - For 3D modelling details
4. D5 - For rendering 3D models in realistic environments (free for students)
5. Adobe - For finalizing drawings!

Cold snaps have been recorded in Nepal's valley regions since the 1990's, dropping the typically scorching temperatures to a chilling 2 degrees Celsius. They are a direct impact of the blankets of smog from cities, which trap the cold air and even block out the sun. However, with the impact of climate change, cold waves have become deadly, especially for isolated villages. In the past two decades alone, hundreds have lost their lives (Kafle, 2020) to the cold. Current housing isn’t adapted to the weather, leaving locals at risk of both hypothermia and smoke inhalation from indoor fires.

In response, our project prioritizes saving lives through rapid, accessible shelter. Our project focuses on the Terai valley region of Nepal, home to one of the most isolated and vulnerable communities - the Tharu people. We propose a lightweight, foldable emergency shelter system that can be delivered by helicopter, and deployed quickly by locals and aid workers with minimal building knowledge. Above all, these shelters must be affordable; no person or family should be denied their human right to a safe shelter during financial stress.

While heat retention and ventilation were immediate priorities, Nepal is also known for its hot, humid summers and intense monsoons. Studying the vernacular architecture of the Indigenous Tharu people showed that traditional architecture is ill-prepared for the recent cold snaps, but is well suited for mitigating the humidity, heat, and rain.

Tharu homes come in many sizes and layouts, but all are shaped by daily routines and built with sustainable, local materials. We studied these carefully to ensure our design wouldn’t disrupt local ways of living. A key feature we carried over is the covered verandah supported by bamboo poles, allowing people to cook and sleep outdoors during the summer heat. We also designed the shelters to be divisible into separate spaces for sleeping, cooking, and storage, as shown in the diagram below. This required a modular and expandable structure that could adapt to different family sizes and storage needs.

In order to factor in the heat, the rain, AND the cold, we expanded our research to similar climates around the world, landing in North America. The indigenous tribes of the Great Plains responded to the continental climate by building Tipis (teepees), conical houses that rely on central, indoor fire pits for warmth. The smoke from these fires is ventilated through the flap at the top, while the heat is effectively circulated inside. Heat is also insulated by air inside the double-layer animal hide walls. During the summer, the walls of the tipi can be lifted at the base to allow cross-ventilation and passive cooling from the Stack effect (where cool air enters close to the ground, absorbs heat and rises through the top opening).

Thus, the tipi design is well prepared for both winter and summer temperature mitigation. By combining elements of this design (the operable smoke flaps and wall flaps, conical design, and double-layer wall) with the traditional Tharu house, we can synthesize a hybrid house equipped for all aspects of the climate.

From the above research, we derived the following set of criteria for our emergency shelter:

1. Lightweight, compactable structure for easy transport
2. Easily and quickly deployable during a climate emergency
3. Affordable, prefabricated structure
4. Shaded porch, and operable windows & smoke flap
5. Modular design to allow expansion

Our solution is an origami-inspired, unfoldable shelter made of triangular plastic panels in a light but durable steel frame. The following steps will show you how we designed it, and how it works in practice!

1) We considered various methods of compacting and deploying an origami shape, settling on a revolving folding pattern based on the Chinese Lantern.

2) We designed our structure to have six steel "main frames" that rotate around a center ball bearing joint

3) The main frames are connected by "subframes", a pattern of thinner steel frames that create the outline of the unfolded shelter

4) Each subframe member is connected to the other at "nodes", joints that allow each member to rotate freely

5) Finally, the subframes hold plastic panels that connect at airtight hinges, which make up the walls of the structure!

The steel structure is very light, and the simple unfolding method means the shelters can be easily deployed by few people with no equipment. This is ideal for the more remote settlements in Terai, as access to cranes or machinery is impossible. This way, individuals and families can construct their own shelters by themselves in minutes, with no training and a kit with very few parts. The accessory parts - the unfolding roof cover and verandah canopy - are also easily clipped to the walls of the module.

The need for immediate, heat-retaining shelter is solved by the default, temporary module - but what if the community needs more permanent solutions? The lantern shelter provides a solid steel structural frame, stronger and safer than the rope-tied bamboo frames of traditional Tharu houses. The panels within the frame are double-layered ETFE plastic, which have a high tensile strength and impact resistance, and the insulation benefits of the air space between layers. There are also unfoldable insulation mats that are transported with the structure, that can unroll to hide the floor beams while softening the cold, hard ground.

That being said, the default module reaches its full potential when combined with local insulation practices. The diagram above details how a temporary module is best insulated with a mix of tied thatch bundles and a cement-clay mixture, both local materials that have been insulating Tharu houses for centuries. These materials are easily tied to the steel frame and plastered over the panels to trap air within the walls and to add thermal mass to absorb the summer's heat. These additions solidify the modules as permanent, more durable additions to the community.

Tharu houses are typically built by the community for new couples and families, and large families tend to cluster detached houses together. houses vary in size depending on the size of these families, and will need more or less rooms for storage and sleeping depending on this occupancy. To acknowledge this variation, we decided to make the lantern shelters connectable to expand modules into larger homes. The diagram above shows how identical modules can be matched and connected to form houses of custom sizes and shapes.

Like the tipi, our shelter needs to have operable openings to accommodate varying climate responses throughout the year. The key to this is the supported roof cover at the top of each module. These lifted covers function as smoke flaps during the winter (allowing for safe indoor heating), windscoops in the summer (pulling cool air from outside into the house) and rain umbrellas throughout the monsoon seasons. Additionally, the horizontal-opening door panels can be opened in different ways to accommodate the user. The top panel can swing up as a window for views, becoming a shading cover when propped up on the outside. Alternatively, the bottom panel can swing open in direct sunlight to prevent solar heat gain. Finally, both panels can open together to become an open porch with a canopy, similar to the verandahs in Tharu houses.

The indigenous peoples of both Nepal and the Great Plains cherish communal living in their daily lives. Just as the tipi house invites everyone around the firepit, the lantern house allows for communal cooking, sleeping and living around the central fire. Thus, we arranged the interior furniture concentrically around the center of each module. Having the furniture around the walls also allows inhabitants to capitalise on the fresh breezes that cross-ventilate through the spaces.

The most important consideration of all was affordability, to make sure all villagers have access to safe shelter regardless of their income. We took a few different approaches to ensuring the cost of construction, transportation and maintenance remains as low as possible:

1) The prefabricated steel frames are very repetitive and symmetrical, which minimizes the need for custom machinery in the fabrication process

2) The structures are light and compact enough to transport many at a time via helicopter, saving on transportation time and cost

3) Lantern houses are designed to build with local, cheap materials on top of the imported framework

4) The structure is easily built on-site without the cost of hiring additional skilled labour

5) Compared to traditional construction in Terai, the Lantern house is made of more durable framing and is more waterproof - meaning less to rebuild after each season.

Using D5 to build a realistic environment, we then rendered our final design.

In combining local traditions with global climate-adaptive strategies, our shelter design offers a practical, respectful, and scalable solution to Nepal’s cold wave crisis. By prioritizing modularity, cultural sensitivity, and rapid deployment, we hope this project can serve as a meaningful step toward safer, more resilient housing for vulnerable communities.