Refugee camps around the world could become more livable thanks to the IKEA flat-pack shelters. The Swedish furniture giant is creating 10,000 of its flat-pack shelters and giving them to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) for use in conflict zones and areas devastated by natural disasters. Each shelter can hold up to five people and is twice as large as the tents currently in use.
The IKEA flat-pack shelters can last three years and are assembled much like the company's more traditional products. It reportedly takes only four hours to set one up, and each shelter can be further customized as needed. Each shelter comes with its own solar panel that provides light when night falls, a crucial addition as the areas these shelters will be used in likely won't have ready access to electricity.
What Makes This Trend Stand Out
- Flat-pack Architecture
- Exploring the viability of flat-pack design and assembly in other aspects of construction
- Modular Living
- Investing in the development of modular, easy-assemble housing for the general public
- Sustainable Emergency Housing
- Creating eco-friendly and sustainable shelters for disaster-stricken areas
Sectors Adopting This
- Humanitarian Aid
- Adapting IKEA's flat-pack shelters to other types of relief efforts and emergency operations
- Prefab Homes
- Designing and constructing modular homes that can be easily assembled by homeowners in a short amount of time
- Renewable Energy
- Developing innovative ways to integrate solar or other renewable energy sources into emergency housing or conventional building design
