The Design Museum in London presented the 2016 Beazley Design of the Year award to Ikea’s refugee shelter. “Better Shelter”, as it’s called at Ikea, is made from recyclable plastic. It has 68 pieces and can be assembled in as few as four hours.
The structure is large enough to house a family of five. It also includes a solar panel to power lights and charge devices. Since its production began in 2015, Better Shelter has been used in many countries, including Iraq, Djibouti, Greece and Niger. Around 16,000 units have been delivered around the world to be used as homes, temporary clinics and offices.
The shelter was nominated for the award alongside items such as a coffee cup designed for use aboard spacecrafts and a smart bicycle helmet. Better Shelter ultimately won because of its ingenuity and contribution to the human race.
“Better Shelter tackles one of the defining issues of the moment: providing shelter in an exceptional situation whether caused by violence or disaster,” associate professor of curating contemporary design at Kingston University and juror Jana Scholze said in a statement.
The shelter is not only a thing of the future but also a way for a large company to step up to help those in need. With this development, Ikea shows that it’s not in business just to make a profit. It’s in business to change lives.
“Providing not only a design, but secure manufacture as well as distribution makes this project relevant and even optimistic. It shows the power of design to respond to the conditions we are in and transform them,” Scholze added in her statement.
I couldn’t agree with her more. The fact that Ikea is putting time and effort into something that responds to today’s global social and humanitarian issues is amazing.
This shelter is for the people who have no home, the families who have nothing but each other after a disastrous event. Better Shelter is a place where a family can have a semblance of normalcy in an otherwise chaotic and stressful time in their lives.
With the devastation from the Louisiana floods last summer, an invention like Better Shelter could help. People were relying on shelters and staying with friends until their homes were okay to live in again. Despite the fact that it’s been six months since the flood, some people still live in campers and shelters. Last week, I met a man outside of Highland Coffees who told me he lost his home in the flood and that he and his wife were living at a homeless shelter.
Better Shelters so far have been distributed in groups, so they form communities of people in comparable circumstances. Typically, life is easier to deal with when you’re surrounded by people who have experienced similar situations. In this way, the refugees live in a place where they can console each other. Children can play and make friends in order to maintain a nearly normal life in the abnormal lifestyle of a refugee.
In this day and age, it is more important than ever to attempt to understand each other, no matter what your background is. The United Nations recognizes that large numbers of displaced people is a problem and partnered with Ikea to produce the Better Shelter. Seeing the UN work with a major company in order to provide a better life for those suffering at the hands of war is inspiring.
As a human race, we must do more to create products that serve a purpose. The corporate world needs to work with the governmental world in order to make the world a better and more tolerant place. Better Shelter is a prime example of how corporate entities, the government and everyday people can work together to combat devastation and change lives for the better.
Myia Hambrick is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Temple, GA.