Instant Windows offers quick fix for houses in war zones
Swiss designer Reto Togni has developed a cling-film-like temporary window to make damaged houses in conflict zones habitable. More
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Night Loo is a safe portable toilet for women in refugee camps
American designer Anna Meddaugh has created a personal urinal that women in refugee camps can use in shelters at night to avoid the threat of sexual violence outside. More
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Stackable Playscapes system transforms empty lots into playgrounds
Two Jordanian architects have devised a modular, easy-to-assemble system of street furniture to bring ad-hoc playgrounds to cities, refugee camps and other environments lacking in public space. More
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IKEA aims to take 200,000 people out of poverty in massive social sustainability drive
IKEA is to employ refugees at production centres in Jordan this summer as part of a long-term plan to create employment for 200,000 disadvantaged people around the world through social entrepreneurship programmes. More
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Architecture students build latticed-wood community centre in German refugee camp
Architecture students from Germany's University of Kaiserslautern have built this wooden community centre for a refugee camp in Mannheim, which is fronted by a latticed screen. More
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Humanitarian experts propose turning refugee camps into enterprise zones called "refugee cities"
Refugee camps should be rebadged as cities and turned into enterprise zones so inhabitants can set up businesses and build their own infrastructure, according to a new report. More
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IKEA Foundation CEO says adapting refugee shelter is "like playing with Lego"
Better Shelter is the latest IKEA product to be hacked, according to the head of the company's charitable foundation, who told Dezeen the modular refugee cabin is now being used to create doctors' surgeries and schools. More
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UNHCR teams up with MIT's D-Lab to overhaul "very top-down" refugee design strategy
The United Nations High Commission for Refugees is working with MIT's D-Lab to develop design strategies that enable refugees to solve their own problems rather than relying on solutions provided by aid agencies (+ interview). More
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V&A features Sam Jacob's replica refugee shelter in copying exhibition at Venice Biennale
Venice Architecture Biennale 2016: scale reproductions of Nefertiti's bust and a shelter used by refugees in Calais' Jungle are among the myriad replicas of cultural artefacts included in a V&A-curated show about the value of copying (+ slideshow). More
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MoMA's Insecurities exhibition to address the global refugee crisis
New York's Museum of Modern Art has announced an exhibition of projects that aim to tackle the issue of shelter for migration and global refugee emergencies. More
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"Treating the refugee crisis as a design problem is problematic"
Opinion: initiatives like What Design Can Do's Refugee Challenge encourage designers to believe that they can solve international problems that go far beyond their reach, says Ruben Pater. More
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Architects for Society designs low-cost hexagonal shelters for refugees
Minnesota-based Architects for Society has developed a prototype for a rapidly deployable dwelling that could house victims of catastrophic events (+ slideshow). More
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Camps like the Jungle are "an important resource for all urban professionals to study"
Architects and planners should study refugee camps like the Jungle in France, according to architecture undergraduate Sophie Flinder, who has completed a dissertation on the way the camp has become a fully functioning town with its own culture (+ transcript). More
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Berlin's Tempelhof Airport to become Germany's largest refugee camp
Berlin is to extend the refugee camp at the decommissioned Tempelhof Airport, making room for 7,000 people in and around one of the German capital's most iconic buildings. More
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Minority Report designer Alex McDowell applies filmmaking techniques to refugee-camp design
Design Indaba 2016: a design technique used on feature films including Minority Report, The Terminal and Man of Steel is being applied to the development of future cities in the face of huge refugee migrations. More
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Banksy adds Steve Jobs mural to refugee camp made from Dismaland remains
Banksy has graffitied an image of Apple founder Steve Jobs as a refugee at a camp in Calais, which was added to with materials left over from the street artist's temporary theme park Dismaland. More
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Refugee tents are a waste of money, says Alejandro Aravena
Tents are a quick response to the need for emergency shelter, but "it's money that melts" says Venice Architecture Biennale 2016 director Alejandro Aravena. More
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Refugee camps are the "cities of tomorrow", says humanitarian-aid expert
Governments should stop thinking about refugee camps as temporary places, says Kilian Kleinschmidt, one of the world's leading authorities on humanitarian aid (+ interview). More
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IKEA develops flat-pack refugee shelters
News: furniture giant IKEA has used its expertise in flat-pack design to redesign refugee shelters. More
