CAPLE is the acronym for 'foldable house' (Casa Plegable), so our objective is to offer habitable spaces to provide the healthiness, stability and durability as a home but with the advantages of a tent, which anybody can assemble and disassemble as many times as necessary.

Easy to store and transport and it can be assembled with no need for specialised workforce, within some hours, only one tool and 2 people. It helps improve the quality of life of displaced people, by offering a new standard regarding minimum habitable spaces.

History of the Company
From the beginning of our company, we have always wanted to do research on the industrialisation within the world of architecture. And even though the industrialisation is usually used for new or public buildings and the industry, we have committed ourselves to taking advantage of its benefits for the dwelling, even for the single-family ones. This concern has led us to develop the pre-manufacturing to the latest consequences by analysing how we could manufacture the access house in the most efficient way, that is an inhabitable space between the shelter and the dwelling on the regulated market.

Thanks to 2013 INNOBAIX competition –where innovation in the company is promoted- we managed to set up a both attractive and functional project that turned out to be the winner and thus, the most supported one.

To whom is it addressed?

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

To understand to whom it is addressed, we need to explain which the pathologies of the system are and so the needs that shall be covered.

There is not an efficient solution which enables to create habitable space needed to provide healthiness, stability and durability to the displaced people, both refugees and IDP (Internally Displaced People), who moved either for working reasons, or in search for other possibilities in order to improve their quality of life.

The precarious situation of the chronic refugee camps all over the world, where people live either in tents or precarious shelters without the minimum conditions for protection, safety and comfort has led to an increase of diseases and their spreading.

There is not any solution that enables to set up a temporary dwelling for those displaced people expelled from marginal neighbourhoods demolished to carry out the development of urban schemes of planned peripheral growth.

And there is not a reusable product that might be used for every new development plan. So we would cover the needs of local governments, who have to take care of the displaced people living at their city borders.

UNHCR and NGOs, who take care of the refugees and have to guarantee the health standards of the camp and thus they have to substitute shelters and tents once the camps have become chronic.

The needs of companies who have to provide their workers with dwellings as close to their work place as possible.

Where?

Map of displaced people according to UNCHR.

Explore the world refugees: http://www.therefugeeproject.org/

Map reflecting the study of annual rainfall in the world.

CAPLE on the market

The objective of CAPLE is to improve the quality of life of displaced people. So our market is both public and private as long as it covers the needs we have set ourselves as objectives. Its target is categorized according to the basic needs to be covered, which are:

– Habitable transition spaces for displaced people in new refugee camps or to improve the living conditions for the inhabitants on the old and chronic camps.

– Temporary and access dwelling for the inhabitants of the marginal suburbs to facilitate the implementation of the urban plans and their reuse for other interventions.

– Displaced people for working reasons. Temporary mobile settlement: For road infrastructure, mining and river prospecting, etc.

BENCHMARKING: CAPLE VS THE OTHERS PRODUCTS ON THE MARKET

Technical Features

CAPLE, industrially manufactured, is composed by:

INHABITABLE BOX AND SELF-SUFFICIENT UPPER AND LOWER BAGS

1. INHABITABLE BOX: Pieces need to be assembled. Basic piece: load-bearing sandwich panel, assemblable and minimum 240cmx120cmx6cm. Thermal insulation with/ BASF injected polyurethane and interior and exterior coating. Thermal insulation and assemblable system, patented.
– Exterior finishes: pre-lacquered steel, wood, viroc board, cement boards
– Interior finishing:  wood, pre-lacquered steel, polyurethane.
– Windows, doors and installations already built into the basic piece

2. SELF-SUFFICIENT BAGS (Extra):
-UPPER SELF-SUFFICIENT BAG. Rain water collection tank and sun energy capture thanks to the reinforced flexible PVC containers. Self-forming with a cavity for storing minimum 3,082L of water.
-Prismatic container to be extended over the roof of the habitable box.

– Removable covers for the maintenance, water collecting holes with filtering fabric. From 1 to 4 units of flexible built-in PV panels (120W 12V) and conduits for the energy supply inside the dwelling. Battery,inverter and 3 sockets for lighting, plugs, switches and covering with PV textile panels and wiring for the supply of captured energy.
– Floor with two evacuation outlets for supply into both sides of the dwelling. Opening valves, hose filter and lower cockstop for the exterior rainage.
– Overflow channel for controlling the storage capacity

3. LOWER SELF-SUFFICIENT BAG(B):
Flexible reinforced PVC septic tank. Self-forming when filled up. Three-compartmented cylindrical cavity for the anaerobic settling tank and overflow channel for the outlet of filtered waters. Sewage access, maintenance opening and air ducts being researched and developed.