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How do you design for disaster, for the shelter of tens of thousands of refugees in a world in flux? A good person to ask would be Pritzker Architecture Prize-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban.
The talented Ban established his reputation reimagining lived spaces through the use of paper and cardboard, recyclables and less conventional materials.
The founder of the Voluntary Architects Network has designed low-cost shelter for disaster victims across the world.
So it shouldn’t be surprising that, last month, human settlements programme UN Habitat in Kenya announced it had signed an agreement with the architect-philanthropist to design up to 20 000 new homes for the Kalobeyei refugee settlement, which was flooded with humanity after the closure of the Dadaab settlement.
Ban approached the UN agency to offer help, and it documented his recent site visit on its website.
Architecture news site ArchDaily spoke with him about his solutions for Kalobeyei, which has a lack of potable water and few resources for building. The answer? Teach locals how to build and maintain their homes themselves from environmentally sustainable materials.
“The key thing will be to design and construct shelter where no or little technical supervision is required, and use materials that are locally available and eco-friendly,” said Ban.
Ban’s design, which opens up to bring some relief in the terrible heat in the settlement, uses a mix of materials and will be tested by building 20 homes before being rolled out. Many resources to construct the homes will still need to be found.
Ban made headlines in 2013, when he built a cardboard cathedral coated with waterproof polyurethane in New Zealand to replace a neo-Gothic cathedral that was destroyed in an earthquake in 2011, which killed 185 people.
It is expected to stand for a decade while the original cathedral is repaired.
- Visit unhcr.org for more
