Innovative designs for sustainable shelters

Introduction

Over a million Rohingya refugees have fled violence in Myanmar in successive waves of displacement since the early 1990s. The Rohingya are a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar. The latest exodus began on 25 August 2017, when violence broke out in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Together with our partners, we are working in support of the Bangladesh government to respond to the massive humanitarian needs. We are also helping the government to develop new sites that can safely accommodate refugees. This includes funding a road to facilitate construction and refugee access, supporting site planning, building latrines and wells, improving the water and sanitation facilities, and distributing shelter materials.

A shelter is defined as a habitable covered living space providing a secure and healthy living environment with privacy and dignity. Refugees and others of concern to UNHCR have the right to adequate shelter in order to benefit from protection from the elements, space to live and store belongings as well as privacy, comfort, and emotional support. The shelter should be adapted according to the geographical context, the climate, the cultural practice and habits, the local availability of skills as well as accessibility to adequate construction materials in any given country. As such, the chosen site for this competition is the world’s largest refugee camp known as the Kutupalong refugee camp in Bangladesh hosting Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar due to persecution.

Competition Goals

Launching this competition from the International Humanitarian Center – the State of Kuwait – a country known to be a catalyst for peace and a pivotal international player in humanitarian aid and conflict resolution. The goal of this competition is to raise awareness amongst youth in Kuwait around the refugee cause amidst the current political climate and the portrayal of refugees as burdens on communities by engaging graduates to play an active role in the cause towards shedding light on the situation of refugees globally and in Bangladesh specifically.

Partnership

Since the establishment of the UNHCR office in the State of Kuwait, 31 years ago, the Government of Kuwait has shown immense support to humanitarian activities led by UNHCR and to advocacy and partnership endeavors locally. Kuwait is a unique strategic donor to UNHCR helping more than 10 million refugees and internally displaced populations across the globe, including Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, and Ukraine, as well as host communities.

Partnerships within the State of Kuwait have been extended to not only Government entities, but also Government developmental funding arms, the private sector, NGOs, charities, and media. This is a reflection of the Government’s commitment to burden sharing and helping more than 100 million forcibly displaced around the world.

We are proud to launch this competition with prominent Kuwaiti partners Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, Kuwait University, and PACE.

Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED):  UNHCR signed with KFAED an MoU back in 2016, Since then, KFAED has provided government funding focusing on infrastructure. This partnership lent vital support to some of UNHCR’s major projects in Iraq, Jordan, and Yemen bringing the total of KFAED’s contributions to $ 16.5 million, helping to improve the living conditions of hundreds of thousands of refugees and internally displaced people by enhancing their shelter, expanding water services, installing solar power, and providing health services.

Kuwait University: As the oldest university in Kuwait, Kuwaiti is the only government institution in Kuwait awarding bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees. It was founded on October 8, 1966, and includes 14 colleges including the College of Architecture.

PACE: Founded in Kuwait City in 1968 and today, as one of the most trusted names in the region, Pace is a leading multidisciplinary consultancy firm based in the Middle East, providing architecture, engineering, and planning services to a wide range of public and private sector clients. They are one of the region’s largest privately owned design and engineering consultancies and operate internationally.

UNHCR: The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was created in 1950, during the aftermath of the Second World War, to help millions of Europeans who had fled or lost their homes. We had three years to complete our work and then disband. Today, over 70 years, and two Nobel peace prizes later, our organization is still hard at work, protecting and assisting refugees around the world.

Timeline

The competition will be officially launched on the 31st of October 2022 at the Kuwait University College of Architecture Adaliya Campus in the Main Exhibition Hall between 12:30 – 1:30 PM. The deadline for submission will be the 22nd of January 2023. Winners will be announced on the 1st of February 2023.

Design Deliverables

To design a refugee shed that would accommodate 5 family members. The refugee shelter will be a Transitional Shelter that is more durable and have semi-permanent construction elements integrated for the shelter to last 2-4 years. The shelter will be located in Bangladesh, thus the design must be environmentally and socially contextual. It is worth considering how modules of the shelter can connect to create a bigger connected shelter unit.

› The shed should accommodate a minimum of 20 m2 of living space and a minimum height of 2.2 m, following the basic guidelines of the UN Manual.
› Designs should be presented on one A-1 Poster. Technical drawings, renders, mood images, and diagrams are encouraged.

Design Guidelines

• The design should be economically feasible, easily fabricated, and disassembled.
• The interconnection between different sheds as a community should be considered.
• Sustainability should be considered in terms of energy consumption, alternative energy resources, and local construction materials – encouraging the local economy.
• To be sensitive to cultural attributes such as privacy and familial intimacy.
• The design should consider the consequences of the shed materials after disassembly.
• The prototype that will be built shall not exceed a construction cost of 1000 K.D.

Important points that we will consider:

• Innovation
• Sustainability
• Economic Feasibility
• Flexibility and Expansion
• Response to context
• Ability to meet construction cost

Jury

• Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED)
• PACE
• UNHCR Shelter Unit
• Rahul Mehrotra – Professor of Urban Design and Planning and Chair of the Department of Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
• Kuwait University – College of Architecture

Reward

500 K.D. prize money and travel on a mission with UNHCR to visit the site in Bangladesh.

Assets

To download files, click here.

Submissions

To submit your project file, click here.

More Information

For more information please email: [email protected]