When we talk about wilderness survival and emergency shelters, we usually think of debris huts, tarp configurations, or lean-tos. But if you want to look at one of the greatest large-scale survival construction feats in North American history, you must look back to December 1777. When General George Washington’s Continental Army marched into Valley Forge, they didn’t find a fortified base. They found a windswept, frozen plateau. Within days, thousands of regular citizens-turned-soldiers had to use basic hand tools to engineer a massive, improvised city out of the standing timber around them. The Valley Forge log cabins (historically called “huts”)…

Jahai huts, characteristic of the Semang Orang Asli people, exemplify the widespread use of bamboo as a material for floors and sidewalls. The Jahai people settle in and near the area of the Royal Belum State Park in Perak, Malaysia, and they showed the author in this area how they built their huts. In this article, we will not focus on thatching the roof, but rather examine how they create the sidewalls. The Jahai people live in small clusters of homes in remote areas near the lake. Typically, each cluster (also referred to as a village) comprises between 6 and…

Traditionally, the beach huts of Zanzibar are often simple thatched structures made from coconut palm leaves, mangrove poles, and coral stone. Initially, they served as a storage place and shelter for fishermen, who needed them to repair nets, store fishing gear, process the catch, and even rest during the day’s heat. The huts also functioned almost like informal community hubs, where news was shared, boats were mended, and younger fishermen learned from their elders. These huts are dotted along the beaches in the fishing villages along Zanzibar’s coasts. However, things have been shifting over the past few decades. Tourism has…

The Datoga are pastoralist people living in various regions of northern Tanzania. Their estimated population is about 30,000. One of their main settlement areas is on the eastern shore of Lake Eyasi. Datoga settlement areas consistently face pressure from the Masai people, who are also pastoralists competing for grazing land. Cattle rustling is the favorite sport of some Masai warriors. Therefore, the Datoga people live close to their livestock to protect them from being stolen. In order to relieve the pressure from Masais, they, in turn, extend their living grounds into Hadza communal land. Hadza camps were discussed in this…

Traditional Hadza camps are loose affiliations of relatives, in-laws, and friends. Each camp has a few core members, but most others come and go as they please. If there are conflicts, the feuding parties will resolve them by simply separating into different camps. Hadza camps are traditionally named after senior males, but this honor does not confer any particular power, as the Hadza recognize no official leaders. Individual autonomy is the hallmark of the Hadza. No Hadza adult has authority over any other. Preferred locations of Hadza camps There are two seasons in the life of a Hadza. The rainy…

Orang Rimba (locally called Kubu) shelters and dwellings in the forests are designed in different styles rooted in their semi-nomadic lifestyle. These structures can be divided into two main groups: semi-permanent structures and shelters when they are on the move. The author visited a band of Orang Rimba people in Jambi province / Sumatra in December 2023. Semi-permanent structures Orang Rimba people living in the forest need a home base when returning from hunting, foraging, and collecting trips for Jernang fruits (Daemonorops draco (Willd.) Blume). At these structures, they have more cooking utensils and are securely protected against the weather.…

Stone huts on the northern side of Mount Etna in Sicily were built at least since pre-Hellenic times, around 4,000 BC. The building materials were basalt blocks from eroded lava at this location. The builders used dry-stone wall construction without mortar. The pseudo-domed roof for the upper layers was an elaborate design, which would not have withstood earthquakes or stronger volcanic trembles. These stone huts were still in use until the 1930s and nearly all of them are abandoned now. Locations of stone huts The climate around the Mediterranean Sea is mostly hot and dry. Vegetation at the shores is…

The Mentawai people at Siberut Island use forest huts (called Sapou by them) for various reasons and purposes. One is a permanent dwelling for single, old men who do not live with their family in the Uma (family home in the forest), as was the case with this forest hut described here. Other purposes for such a hut would be as a resting place when tendering taro gardens or as a hunting base in faraway locations. The particular purpose of forest huts For couples, it is strictly taboo to exchange any sexually inspired feelings within the Uma. Couples have to…

Roof thatching is vital for shelter waterproofing in the Mentawai tribe, which has around 6,000 members, on Siberut Island, Indonesia. Siberut lies about 100 miles (160 km) west of Padang in West Sumatra. Of the 6,000 Mentawai people, roughly 1,000, mainly elders, live traditionally in the Evergreen tropical forests. The younger generation attends schools and must adopt recognized Indonesian religions, leading to a loss of cultural ties. Consequently, they may settle in villages outside the forest. As a result, most traditional family houses might deteriorate, and vibrant shamanism could give way to tourist-oriented hip-hop dances in the future. Our group…

Termite mounds are primarily made of soil, excavated below the mound, and carried to the surface by these insects. They use the soil to construct the mound, forming it into various shapes depending on the termite species. The exterior of the mound is usually coated with a hard, clay-like substance that helps to protect it from the elements and predators. Termites produce this substance by mixing soil with secretions from glands on their bodies. They also use saliva as a binding agent, holding the substance together. In another article on this website, we discussed the use of ‘ant hill’ material…

Members of the Khoi-san (Bushmen) tribe named Ju//hoansi are also called !Kung. Both the signs / and ! denote click sounds. The tribe is about 30,000 people spread over Namibia, Botswana, and southern Angola, with a central area at the Botswanan-Namibian border area around Tsumkwe. During foraging or hunting expeditions, they use leaf huts as temporary shelters, providing shade. Why are temporary leaf huts necessary? During wild food gathering and hunting in September and Oktober, when the weather is scorching hot and leaves have only evolved very sparingly, they build temporary grass or leave shelters for protection against the scorching…

Empty aluminum beer and pop cans will serve additional purposes after guzzling their contents. Besides toys and various repair applications, these cans can build huts and houses! As can be seen in Texas, in the US here, or Australia there, they have even got them into the Australian Book of Records. On the way to Spitzkoppe in Namibia, we saw beer can huts, built as shelters against the sun. Which is more of a curiosity, but it also serves practical purposes and promotes out-of-the-box thinking. Beer can hut for housing Besides of temporary shelters, we also saw one, which was…

Two German geologists, Dr. Henno Martin and Dr. Herman Korn, went into hiding around the Kuiseb Canyon area, Namibia, for 2.5 years at the beginning of WW2 in 1940 to avoid internment by the South African Union government. During that time, they lived mainly off the land. Herman Korn died in 1946 in a traffic accident. Henno Martin was a professor of geology at the University of Cape Town after the war and later at Göttingen, Germany, where he died in 1998. Henno Martin published the book The Sheltering Desert in 1957. Based on their experiences of this ordeal, it…

Although they are commonly referred to as “Ant beds,” particularly in Australia, the structures are actually “Termite mound.” Despite their physical similarities to ants, termites are related to cockroaches rather than ants. However, like ants, they are small and numerous. One significant difference between the two is that termites are white. This makes them highly susceptible to damage from sunlight. To protect their food sources, such as wood, from the sun’s rays, termites construct a coating of clay and saliva, known as “sheeting,” over them. Termites also use the same material as they use for sheeting to construct their mounds.…