Life Boat in a Box

About

Taking the form of a shipping container, this portable lifeboat station will be on display while Chelsea’s BA Interior and Spatial Design students, mentored by Robin Jenkins, Senior Lecturer in Interior Spatial Design, install the interior and offer the public a chance to experience the possibilities for social transformation through art and design.
Conceived in March 2015 following a research visit to the tsunami-effected region of Kamaishi City, North East Japan, the Life Boat in a Box project was initiated by Jenkins, after learning that Japan does not operate a Lifeboat Service.

The container will feature a workshop, a changing facility for the crew and a bespoke Rigid-Hull Inflatable Boat (RIB), designed and built for the project by students at UWC Atlantic College in Wales.

Working with Atlantic Pacific International Rescue Boat Project (APIRBP) and UWC Atlantic College, this will be the first prototype produced with a view to establishing funds to take the project beyond Japan.

Following its display at Chelsea, the Lifeboat in a Box will be collected and delivered to Kamaishi in August 2016, where Jenkins and the APIRBP will oversee the training of local residents on how to operate it.