Ski Yurt: Upcycle of Downhill Skis for a Shelter in Cacine—Guinea-Bissau

Downhill skis are composite materials with very high performances. Very often after few years of use, they are changed due to new fashions or ski techniques. This means a lot of waste which still has the potential for very high structural performances. Thus, the idea to upcycle these materials thanks to a cooperation with the University of Grenoble in the joint activities of their laboratory and Velux Lab. Several tests and dome structures were realized in order to show the potential of these materials. Then a yurt was designed, tested, and pre-built at the Politecnico di Milano before shipping it to Africa, through the equatorial forest in Guinea-Bissau, as a first shelter-base camp in a desolated land where a mission was later founded. The purpose is also to make a structure with very high performances and that is resistant to the aggression of termites (only hard wood is suitable there but it requires deforestation) without using steel since it is too expensive. So the final goal is not to send waste to Africa but to show how waste can also become a very solid structure and a valued asset.