2015 winter test in Luxembourg – R&D project for a new light self-standing tent
In 2011 the three largest entities operating in humanitarian sheltering, IRC, ICRC, and UNHRC launched a R&D project to continue the efforts of defining a lightweight, self-supporting family-shelter solution for emergency operations. The aim was to develop a solution even lighter than the standard family tent, at a lower cost and with fewer constraints regarding production, transport and storage. In addition to these technical and logistic criteria, further criteria for usability, user-satisfaction and climatic response were introduced.
The process has been coordinated and managed by Senior Shelter Specialists from IFRC-Shelter and Settlements Department (IFRC-SSd) and UNHCR.
After different tests and a selection process, two proposed models were selected to be tested on winter conditions. The Project industrial partners of these models were requested to produce two prototypes of each model for comparative testing, one sample of each model with winter cover and another without.
The winter test was originally planned to take place in Pakistan. However