Dessication to Domicile

I remember one of my first camping trips for cub scouts. I had a little pup tent held up with two poles. The rain clouds came in, and a wise scout master asked me to move into his much larger tent. I was grumpy, but found a small spot in his tent to curl up in. The next morning, I found my pup tend collapsed in a pool of water. No harm done, except my copy of THE TWO TOWERS (by J.R.R. Tolkien) had become paper mache. Well, now Wired News is reporting that there may be a new option for temporary shelters.

Soon, there will be such a method. A pair of engineers in London have come up with a "building in a bag" -- a sack of cement-impregnated fabric. To erect the structure, all you have to do is add water to the bag and inflate it with air. Twelve hours later the Nissen-shaped shelter is dried out and ready for use..."This gave us the idea of making a giant concrete eggshell for a shelter, using inflation to optimize the structure for a compressive load," said Brewin. "Eggs are entirely compressive structures with enormous strength for a very thin wall."

This sounds a heck of a lot more sturdy than my old pup tent. Probably overkill for cub scouts. But great for longer-term camps - like refugee situations and military locations.