The best shelter we can usually offer the world's tens of millions of refugees is a tent. Ikea has designed a cheap, solar-powered hut that only takes four hours to assemble but offers refugees more protection and privacy. It is a steel frame with Porta potty plastic panels and solar power on the roof.
More than 43 million people--globally--live as refugees or "internally displaced" (refugees within their own countries), having fled home due to "a well-founded fear of persecution" of race, religion, nationality, or socio-political membership. Right now, 3.5 million of them live in UN-provided tents, says Per Heggenes, CEO of the Ikea Foundation.
Canvas UN tents that start to disintegrate after about six months. The new Ikea-inspired shelters are built to last 10 times that long. They're twice as large as an old-school refugee tent, at 17.5 square meters (fitting five people comfortably) and take about four hours to assemble.
They currently cost $10,000 to make, but they're hoping to get that price down to less than $1,000 when they're in mass production. The tents cost half that, but they hope to have the cost even out, given the long life of the shelters
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More than 43 million people--globally--live as refugees or "internally displaced" (refugees within their own countries), having fled home due to "a well-founded fear of persecution" of race, religion, nationality, or socio-political membership. Right now, 3.5 million of them live in UN-provided tents, says Per Heggenes, CEO of the Ikea Foundation.
Canvas UN tents that start to disintegrate after about six months. The new Ikea-inspired shelters are built to last 10 times that long. They're twice as large as an old-school refugee tent, at 17.5 square meters (fitting five people comfortably) and take about four hours to assemble.
They currently cost $10,000 to make, but they're hoping to get that price down to less than $1,000 when they're in mass production. The tents cost half that, but they hope to have the cost even out, given the long life of the shelters
Read more »