Alaskan company InterShelter has developed multi-use structure based on igloo design
By Kevin Doyle
This is so cool, it’s downright hot – and suitable for use in the sub-zero Arctic or searing desert heat. Drawing on the native igloo for inspiration, Alaskan start-up InterShelter™ gives us the high-tech portable dome, complete with door and windows. The standard 314sf building can be assembled by hand.
Company President Don Kubley describes himself as being “as mechanical as a stump” in one high-profile publication. Still the fourth-generation Alaskan has come up with a product brilliant in its simplicity. The domes can be used for military applications, migrant worker housing, storm/disaster relief, quarantine/isolation shelters, homeless shelters and hunting camps..
Pieces of the dome fit together like fish scales and can be stacked in the back of a pickup truck, an attractive feature for customers looking to transport units to hard-to-reach locations. The standard structure retails for $12,500 and is available from dealers in a dozen countries as well as online, at www.intershelter.com.
The company website describes the InterShelter™ as “a patented revolutionary portable shelter, made of a high-tech aerospace composite material, or cutting edge HD plastic that has bridged the gap from tents and trailers to traditionally built framed houses. Built to sustain hurricane strength winds or earthquakes and insulated to stay warm in extreme arctic sub-zero degree weather or cool in hot desert climates, these structures can be assembled in just a few hours by three untrained people.”
Kubley says architect Craig Chamberlain, a former student of geodesic dome inventor R. Buckminster Fuller, dreamed up the design. Kubley bought the rights to commercialize it two years ago and recently found a manufacturer in Idaho to build kits.
Kubley, a former consultant who ran a fleet of charter boats out of Juneau for 20 years, has raised $250,000 from friends and family. Though 2008 revenue was only around $140,000. Kubley says he is negotiating with the U.S. military and Afghan authorities and projects up to $5 million in sales in 2009.
Sources: Time Magazine, www.intershelf.com