Concrete Canvas Shelters are rapidly deployable hardened shelters that require only water and air for construction. The 25sqm variant can be deployed by 2 people without any training in under an hour and is ready to use in only 24 hours.

The key to CCS is the use of inflation to create a surface that is optimised for compressive loading. This allows thin walled concrete structures to be formed which are both robust and lightweight. CCS consist of a cement impregnated fabric (Concrete Cloth) bonded to the outer surface of a plastic inner which forms a Nissen-Hut shaped structure once inflated.

The Need

“While starvation occurs over a period of weeks, death from exposure can occur in a single night”
UN Co-ordinator for Afghanistan

There are currently over 35 million refugees worldwide. The aid agencies and troops that help save lives in emergency situations require accommodation, field offices and medical clinics. Current solutions are either soft-skinned and offer inadequate protection, or are expensive and difficult to transport. For example, in Afghanistan the useable life of some tents has been less than 3 weeks due to wind damage.

Concrete Canvas Shelters (CCS) have major advantages over conventional tented shelter:

1) Operational: CCS enables a hardened structure from day one of a crisis. It provides much better environmental protection, increased security and vastly improved medical capability.

2) Financial: CCS has a design life of over 10 years, whereas tents survive for only a few years and must then be replaced. CCS is a one stop solution, saving effort and cost over the lifetime of medium to long term operations

Rapid
A 54sqm CCS can be deployed by 2 people in less than 2 hours and is ready to use in only 24 hours.

Force Protection
The compressive structure of CCS has been modelled for covering with sand or earth (berming) to provide protection against small arms fire and shell fragments.

Insulating
CCS concrete shells have good thermal properties. When buried they provide excellent insulation and a very large thermal mass. This dampens temperature fluctuations between day and night.

Durable
CCS are far more durable than tenting with a minimum design life of 10 years.

Sterile
The sealed plastic inner of a CCS, means it can be delivered sterile; vastly increasing frontline medical capability from day one of a crisis.

Fire proof
Concrete Cloth is a ceramic and will not burn. Each shelter is lined with a flame retardant fibre reinforced polyethylene inner with a B1 (DIN 4102-01 05/98) fire rating.

CBRN protection
CCS can be fitted with a combined forced air / inflation unit and decontamination module to provide full spectrum CBRN protection.

Security
The hard shell and lockable doors of a CCS provide a level of security not possible with soft skinned structures, protecting stores, equipment and personnel.

Semi-permanent
CCS provide all the benefits of a permanent structure without the associated cost and time delays.