South Sudan currently has the third largest refugee crisis around the globe, with over 3.7 million people being displaced from their homes due to ethnic and political civil war. Over 2 million of these refugees have been displaced from their home country, seeking asylum in refugee settlements that neighbor South Sudan.
One of the most important needs within these settlements is adequate housing. Through polling and census data, it has been found that more than half of the refugees are living in dilapidated housing conditions, without any resources to make repairs. The average amount of time spent within these settlements is over a decade and is increasingly getting worse as more refugees enter these settlements.
Due to the exponential technological advancements in 3D printing technology, using this form of construction could potentially address a situation within a refugee settlement. 3D printing technology could provide benefits due to its ability to produce housing units at a high rate, its ability to use clay aggregate soil as construction material, mimicking adobe brick housing found in Africa, and the ability to lower the need for labor within these settlements.
This thesis will explore the idea of employing this technology within a refugee settlement, to test if it can appropriately balance the implementation of a high tech 21st century technology with the historic and cultural vernacular architecture found regionally throughout Africa. / Master of Architecture / The country of South Sudan currently is experiencing the third largest refugee crisis around the globe. Over 2.5 million refugees have fled their home country of South Sudan and are entering refugee settlements from neighboring countries. Due to the exponential increasing rate of refugees within these settlements, issues such as overcrowding and inadequate housing are afflicting the lives of everyone here.
Typical houses in South Sudan consist of mud and adobe brick material known as "tukul huts". While these huts have remained the leading housing type for the past 2,000 years, these houses where not intended for addressing the common refugee crisis we are experience today. These huts require the period of months to construct and extensive physical labor. Given that the refugees are entering these settlements at an exponential rate, it is ineffective to approach housing construction in a traditional manner due to the time and effort it requires to keep up with the high demand.
A possible way to address this concern, is by looking at other construction practices that could potentially supplement the traditional forms of erecting houses. Construction technology has advanced to the point where 3D printers can create life size structures that provide housing to individuals.
This thesis will explore the idea of employing 3D printers into a South Sudanese refugee settlement, to see if it can adequately produce houses that provide shelter for the incoming refugees.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/106555 |
| Date | 08 November 2021 |
| Creators | Quinn, Kyle O.'Brien |
| Contributors | Architecture, Piedmont-Palladino, Susan C., Jenkins, Eric J., King, Jonathan Lee |
| Publisher | Virginia Tech |
| Source Sets | Virginia Tech Theses and Dissertation |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | ETD, application/pdf |
| Rights | In Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ |
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