Construction waste and building demolition are responsible for an estimated 30% of all Western countries’ landfill content. Architects realize that preservation and re-use are the most sustainability-responsible approaches to building design.
Project Name: Sail to Shelter Emergency Shelter Concepts
Studio Name: CO Architects
Image Credit: CO Architects
Materials re-use normally centers on steel, aluminum, and aggregates. Los Angeles IP attorney and sailboat racing enthusiast Angela Abshier conceived an unexpected upcycle opportunity for retired racing sails: as emergency shelter and shade. While working to create a secondary marketplace for defective garment-industry material and living in a downtown LA loft overlooking Skid Row, Angela connected dots. She wondered if de-commissioned sails—many of which are non-biodegradable and normally go to landfills, languish in shipping containers, or eventually degrade at the bottom of the ocean—could provide summer-heat respite for the Los Angeles homeless population. So Angela launched not-for-profit organization Sail to Shelter early in the pandemic.
On a mission to explore the full potential of retired America’s Cup-style Grand Prix racing sails, Angela cold-emailed Los Angeles firm CO Architects. Firm principal and sailing enthusiast Fabian Kremkus, AIA, LEED GA, was intrigued by this philanthropic design opportunity and volunteered CO’s design services.
The firm held design charrettes where participating staff members shared their designs and ideas. The goal: devising functional—yet aesthetically pleasing—shelter by upcycling triangular sails of varying sizes to realize Sail to Shelter’s mission of using retired sails to alleviate suffering for refugees fleeing political strife and survivors of severe-weather incidents as two examples. Specialized insights were offered by outside experts: Arup (engineers), Doyle (a top sail manufacturer), and Dimension-Polyant (a large-scale sailcloth manufacturer).
Field Testing
Following the charrettes, Sail to Shelter organized a proof-of-concept event. The philanthropic organization partnered with Farm from a Box, which packs shipping containers with everything needed to plant a sustainable off-grid farm as large as 12 acres, and the International Rescue Committee (IRC), an experienced builder of refugee camps. The goal was to prototype solutions that could be iterated, scaled, and replicated around the world.
The two-day event was held at IRC’s Karma Farm in Sacramento, California. Project partner Doyle shipped several sails to Karma Farm to simulate an emergency-response situation. Doyle is helping Sail to Shelter set up a global network of customers and sail lofts/yacht clubs, identifying locations of retired sails. The goal is to improve response time and minimize shipping impact by having sails available at locations throughout the world.
The Karma Farm results were exciting and affirming. The workshop demonstrated that racing sails can be transformed into lifesaving shade and shelter.
Real World: Ukrainian Refugee Relief, Hawaii Fire Recovery
Sail to Shelter’s initial mission was to ease suffering in the Los Angeles homeless population. While navigating this challenge, Sail to Shelter partnered with World Central Kitchen (WCK) to implement rapid-response relief. The first real-world exercise was a call from WCK to support Ukrainian refugees at a camp in Poland. Promptly after receiving the call, CO Architects designed an 80×120-foot dry storage and commercial kitchen canopy from 40-foot mainsails sourced from Doyle and Dimension-Polyant.
Ultimately, the on-site team’s safety couldn’t be guaranteed during construction, so the project wasn’t realized. It did validate Sail to Shelter’s viability for immediate, custom, temporary crisis support using regionally sourced sails to mitigate an unforeseen problem.
Shortly thereafter, Sail to Shelter was able to help WCK with additional Ukrainian relief efforts in Poland. Using yacht-industry contacts, Sail to Shelter arranged delivery of a pallet of rigging rope from Offshore Rigging Services in Spain to Poland. In addition, Sail to Shelter is collaborating with boots-on-the-ground relief organization Solidarity Engineering and outdoor-amenity company GDIRC to build asylum-seeker camps in Mexico. Further, CO Architects designed shade structures for Hawaii fire response; fund-raising is in progress to realize the project.
Not content with supplying shade structures for humanitarian aid, Sail to Shelter is investigating additional industrial building uses for retired racings sails. The organization is working with North Carolina State University’s Wilson’s College of Textile Engineering to explore the structural capabilities of Dacron-fiber sailcloth. In 2024, the university is extending its research to include ghost nets to make building blocks.
Further, Sail to Shelter is addressing ecological considerations. Upcycling sails saves them from landfills during sails’ second lives—but not indefinitely. University of California, Davis, is working with Sail to Shelter to test racing sails’ microplastics’ impacts on soil. Off-grid farming in the spirit of Farm from a Box is another potential re-use of sails if they’re proven to be ecologically compatible.
