Yes you heard me right, “Singapore-designed”.
What does Lil Wayne and Ashton Kutcher have in common?
Almost nothing, except for the fact that they are both outspoken supporters of the weatherHYDE; a Singapore-designed weatherproof tent which provides shelter to the homeless.
Yes you heard me right, “Singapore-designed”. weatherHYDE is a revolutionary life-saving tent which uses a triple layered flysheet to insulate its users and shield them from extreme weather conditions.
Over 200,000 celebrities worldwide have shared its viral video on Facebook, the films collectively amassing up to over 23 million views and 338,000 likes since they were posted in July 2016.
What makes weatherHYDE one of its kind is that it is reversible; it is equipped with both a reflective and nonreflective side. If you’re having trouble imagining what is that like, just think of a typical bag of chips you would find in a supermarket.
billionBricks
The team behind the weatherHYDE, billionBricks; a non-profit organisation, is composed of passionate architects, designers, and building industry professionals who seek to provide higher quality housing for the poor in developing countries.
Started by trios Prasoon Kumar, CEO of billionBricks, Anurag Strivastava, CEO of Space Matrix and Snehal Mantri, a property developer in India, it was decided that billionBricks would be based in Singapore due to its robust start-up socio-economic environment.
Prasoon Kumar sketched the weatherHYDE’s design in 2014, and today, it boasts awards such as being a finalist in the ASEAN Impact Challenge 2015 and a winner in the Social Design Category of the A’Design Award 2016.
A Life-saving Tent
The conception of weatherHYDE stems from a touching story; in 2013, almost 9,000 families have been displaced and rendered homeless due to communal riots in the North Indian town of Muzaffarnagar. Who the riots did not kill, the cold nights took, where it was reported that more than 30 children died when temperatures in the night fell to near freezing.
According to Prasoon Kumar, CEO of billionBricks, emergency shelters in developing countries are often crammed, “They typically house 50 to 60 people under one roof,”, where husbands and wives are forced to sleep separately. Sometimes, the infrastructure and overcrowding is so bad that families would rather sleep on the streets in the freezing cold.
That’s when billionBricks, the innovator of the weatherHYDE, decided to create an emergency tent to shield displaced, homeless families from the punishing weather, whilst providing them with a private space they can live in dignity with.
The weatherHYDE
On cold nights, with the reflective layer facing inwards, a family’s body heat is able to be retained within the structure for warmth. In the blazing summers, with the reflective layer facing outwards, it is able to reflect solar heat away, keeping the family cool throughout the day.
Features
weatherHYDE measures in at 1.5m by 1.8m, reaching an exterior height of 1.6m and an interior height of 0.75m. This sizing of the all-season reversible tent thus allows for the accommodation of a family of 5, up to 3 children and 2 adults.
Should the family be displaced from their emergency site, weatherHYDE provides a lightweight and portable shelter solution. When packaged, weatherHYDEweighs in at a mere 12kg. You might be thinking, “hey but my collapsible tent weighs basically close to nothing, isn’t 12kg a tad too heavy?”.
All-Seasons, All Terrains
The additional weight of weatherHYDE is actually part and parcel of its sturdy design, and more importantly, it is the primary reason why the weatherHYDE can be deployed even in urban environments such as a pavement.
In tougher, more windier climates, families can pour sand, water or whatever is available down the frames of the tent, to enhance its stability. Under typical wind conditions, there is basically no need for anchoring, and that brings us to the next point.
No tools are required to set-up the tent, as it’s structural design is one that objectives simplicity, flexibility and easy deployment. Users can set up the tent in just under 15 minutes, and maybe less when they start getting used to it.
The Gift of Dignity
weatherHYDE aims to replicate the sense of a private space as much as possible, and that is most evident in it’s incorporation of windows into the tent. Due to the triple-layer design of the tent, water will not seep into the tent even when the families leave their windows zipped-open. When the families need their privacy, the windows zip conveniently-shut.
Also, you know how you can always see the shadows of campers moving around in their tents at night? That issue is resolved in weatherHYDE due to the same triple-layer design of the tent, giving these families a entitlement to dignity and privacy in their homelessness states, something that is unintuitive across most emergency shelters.
The movement
weatherHYDE started its kickstarter campaign on 10 October 2016, and has successfully reached its goal of S$145,095 with 480 backers on 2 December 2016. Last year, weatherHYDE had its first pilot test in Delhi, India, providing shelter to 15 families and giving homeless individuals such as Khushi, her first home.
Even though the kickstarter campaign has ended, you can still support weatherHYDE if you wish to. Individuals can pledge from $8 – $7,000 to purchase weatherHYDE t-shirts to 4 weatherHYDEtents respectively, to which shipping is available to New Delhi, Singapore and the United States.
One can purchase a weatherHYDE for personal recreational use, or send it as a gift to the homeless in any one of the 3 selected countries.
It’s 2017, where the world is experiencing it’s worst refugee crisis in human history. According to Habitat, as many as 1.6 Billion people in the world lack adequate housing by 2015, with the less-developed countries suffering the most.
It is a proud moment for a patriot like me, seeing such a compassionate, smart and sustainable locally-designed innovation shine on the international stage, driven by a meaningful cause rather than a quick buck.
To all the Singaporean locals out there, maybe it’s time to take camping to the next level. This time, you’ll be relieved to know your shadow isn’t being watched when you’re moving around in your tent.
