Making an igloo out of styrofoam.
I had this dream the other night in which a friend and I (Laura Kersting, in fact) were living outside in these chickenwire cages. They were only about two feet high and as long as our bodies. It struck me as we got rained on that when winter came along, we would be really uncomfortable. It dawned on me that it would be great to make an igloo to keep warm. I kept thinking, and then I realized there was tons of discarded styrofoam in the area, and that would be really good material because it would insulate from the cold. As the dream went on, I kept refining the design, like I realized I b/c the foam is not solid, I could drive something like a chopstick down between two parts to connect them, so the structure would be more solid. Eventually, I even started thinking about making something high I could stand up in.
Actually, styrofoam igloos for the homeless seem like a good idea, for winter, anyway. They’d be light, waterproof, and the blocks would be reusable.