Student designs protective door for earthquakes

It can swivel horizontally on a central pivot a little less than 1m above the ground.

The door folds horizontally so the bottom half of it remains on the ground, anchoring it to the floor and providing additional protection.

There is a small cabinet built into the door frame in which Younghwa has housed a wind-up torch, sachets of drinking water and medical supplies.

The door should take only five seconds to convert the door into a makeshift protective capsule.

Younghwa decided to tackle the impact of a natural disaster while she was sitting, frustrated, at Seoul airport when her flight back to the United Kingdom was delayed by the cloud of volcanic ash earlier this year.

With the catastrophe in Haiti occurring only a few months earlier, she decided to focus on earthquakes.

Younghwa, 31, based her research on Istanbul as the US Geological Survey has estimated there is a 70 per cent chance the city will be hit by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the richter scale before 2030, potentially killing as many as 150,000 people.

She believes her doors could be inexpensively incorporated in many of the city's homes.