A Big-Tent Design for Middle Eastern Refugees

Architects like Shigeru Ban and companies like IKEA have tried their hand—often admirably—at designing better housing for refugees living in camps. With the refugee situation in the Middle East exploding—Syrian refugees alone number more than 4.5 million in the neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, and Iraq—the need for effective and inexpensive temporary shelter has never been more urgent. Egyptian architect and professor Marwa Dabaieh and her colleague, Ahmad Borham, have come up with a design tailored for the region—one that is low-cost, biodegradable, and culturally sensitive.

Dabaieh and Borham propose drawing on the nomadic architecture of the Middle East, namely Bedouin tents. A main reason for employing this type of shelter is the tents’ adaptability to the region’s climate, which can seesaw between extreme heat and extreme cold.