Abstract: An emergency shelter for cold climates is disclosed. The shelter has a thermally insulating inner shell shaped to provide an occupant with adequate space for sitting, lying down or performing necessary tasks, while minimizing a technical volume and surface area for thermal efficiency. To this end, the shell has a small foot section, a taller knee section and a taller and wider head section joined to the knee section by an appropriate transition. The shell has an inflatable, impervious, self supporting outer layer and an air pervious, insulating inner layer. A canopy extends over the foot, knee and transition sections to provide a heat transfer diameter around those sections of the shell. The outer layer of the shell has an opening into the heat transfer chamber for ventilation.

Abstract: A tent comprises a shell including a floor and a canopy secured together. The floor and canopy are separably joined along a substantially U-shaped perimeter section to provide a door opening. The tent has a frame including an arch with its ends supported adjacent the ends of the door opening and extending across the tent to support the canopy above the floor. The arch is pivotable from a closed condition of the tent in which the floor and canopy meet along the U-shaped door opening and an open position in which the canopy is drawn up and away from the floor to permit access to the tent. The frame may also include two longitudinally oriented bowed supports supporting the canopy above the floor. The tent may, for cold weather use, include an insulating liner suspended from the frame and spaced from the canopy. The liner is preferably air pervious at a head end of the tent and impervious at a foot end of the tent. The canopy is then made with a breathing section at the head end.