Master Thesis - From Emergency Shelters to Homes

Typology Master Thesis, Product Development

Location Gothenburg, Sweden

Providing adequate post-disaster housing for refugees and displaced people is a challenging and critical issue, as worldwide aid resources are insufficient.

The objective of the thesis is to develop the design for an emergency shelter made in paperboard, focusing on enabling dignified living conditions in a way that is both environmentally sustainable and economically feasible; a shelter that can be produced with high durability at a reasonable cost. The project is performed in collaboration with Imnus™ Emergency Housing. Reboard® was selected as the construction material, being rigid, lightweight and fully recyclable.

The design criteria are dictated by the analytic study of different aspects that could contribute to the optimization of the final product: life in refugee camps, essential qualities of a domestic environment, its spaces and functions, general requirements set by aid organizations and technical production requirements.

The thesis proceeded alternating research, design development and full-scale realization, with the construction of three prototypes between January and June 2014.

The results support the appropriateness of paperboard housing solutions for early post-disaster response, prioritizing the aspects related to the provision of privacy and structural stability, together with shelter adaptability to a variety of cultural and social contexts.