Ireland goes to the polls once again on May 25th 2018 to decide if the present blanket ban on termination of pregnancies should remain a part of the constitution or be regulated by legislation instead. The campaigns to repeal vs retain this 8th amendment involve strong beliefs, passionate advocates and thousands upon thousands of corrugated plastic signs.

Posters on a pedestrian bridge on the Stillorgan Road in 2002. Photograph: David Sleator

For a country so deeply concerned with women and babies in this context, Ireland hasn’t the best track record in caring for those children already born with minors comprising 30 percent of our homeless population; a figure unrivaled in Europe. Here follows a modest proposal to kill two birds with one stone and ease the environmental burden of these plastic signs while at the same time providing shelter for the hundreds of people sleeping rough in Ireland each night.

17 of the larger format corroplast can be used to build a shelter 120cm wide and 220cm long with a ridge height of ca. 150cm allowing for room to sit comfortably. This is a little larger than an average capsule hotel pod, popular in Japan. Additional posters can be used to create interior furnishings such as shelving, fold-away tables or to increase wall, floor and roof thickness for added structural stability and improved insulation.

The model is designed to be assembled using plastic fasteners and includes overlap for rainproof and strengthened seams (thus the extended walls) and likely zip-ties for the roof. The upper gable panel can be cut or ideally folded to shape and will allow for a little ventilation in both cases. An entrance door is cut into the lower gable panel and incompletely cutting the last side creates a natural hinge. An opaque sealant spray would increase waterproofing and cover the, often distressing, content of the posters.




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