The WDCD Refugee Challenge actually consists of five challenges! Each of the five briefs addresses a specific issue refugees encounter during the reception and acceptance procedure in the country where they have landed. The first brief asks What design can do to improve shelters and reception centres in society.
Large shelter areas are opening to accommodate all the refugees arriving in Europe today. Old schools, offices and even prisons are being transformed into temporary housing units. Refugees live in crowded conditions and face a lack of privacy, often for months, if not more than a year. Also, though more than one in three of the refugees seeking asylum are children, current facilities are rarely child-friendly.
At the same time, local communities are overwhelmed by the many refugees in their neighbourhood. Often, the little interaction between the two groups is a missed opportunity for quick integration. The upshot is that integration has yet to start once asylum is granted, which results in additional frustration and costs for everybody involved.
The opportunity
Experts argue for the creation of decentralized and smaller shelters that facilitate better integration within society from the start. Designers are capable of envisioning solutions that take various and sometimes conflicting interests into account.
The multiple stakeholders affected by this problem can benefit from the co-creation skills of designers. Can we imagine a shelter that is an asset for both refugees and the local population? And how could such a shelter facilitate interaction between the two? Think, for instance, of possible interventions within the realms of architecture, interior design, service design or even public space design.
Consider how you can strengthen, build on or enhance the best things already happening, or come up with an entirely new and great idea!
Download the full WDCD Refugee Challenge brief including background information and research material from refugeechallenge.unhcrideas.org and join the challenge.
Top image: still from video of reception center Ter Apel in the Netherlands