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Monday, August 8, 2011

An Alligator-shaped park bench, that doubles as a homeless sleeper/shelter!?

Another VERY ROUGH DRAFT for what might be a future tiny shelter/house/sleeper/emergency-hut design, or something I just may build perhaps for my "Tiny Yellow House" show on youtube. Pretty self-explanatory and "FUN"ctional (at least I feel so).
The "Alligator" aspect of it is just for amusement/art's sake. This little dwelling could be built pretty affordably and could house the homeless, or in larger form, serve as a one person emergency shelter/hut/tiny house.

Why not?

An initial prototype could easily be built from plywood and would feature a window in the end, a micro-circular "eye" window (a recycled washing machine window a la my cabin "The GottaGiddaWay"), vents, and a hydraulic/piston-style hinge to prevent the top from slamming down shut while entering the sleep chamber. It could be locked from the inside too (perhaps)- depending on the neighborhood.

I even went so far as the contemplate a few emergency stab-tabs on the "ceiling" in case a few punks decided they wanted to sit on top of this and not let the occupant out. In such a case, a sharp, pencil like metal rod could be shoved upwards through the hole or two, effectively stabbing the sitters in the arse, and giving them no choice but to move. Naturally, this could be misused and abused by those with less than good intentions during the daytime too. So perhaps its not a great idea. 

AGAIN- a ROUGH DRAFT(!)- this is not what the drawings in my book look like....(which just got mention in Australia's "SANCTUARY" magazine, and soon in "South Shore Living" magazine, in a follow-up to the Boston Globe cover-story we had. The book's not even out yet (on pre-order) and its been selling VERY well- thank you! Thank you! I spent years making the art and designs in the book so I completely appreciate those who have supported me by picking up a copy.

-Derek "Deek" Diedricksen