A flat-pack refugee shelter developed by Ikea and the United Nations has been awarded the Beazley Design of the Year, presented by the Design Museum in London.
The modular Better Shelter is made from recyclable plastic, comprises only 68 components, and can be assembled in as few as four hours.
Each structure included a solar panel to power lights and charge devices. Almost 16,000 units have been delivered to countries around the world including Iraq, Djibouti, Greece and Niger, to be used as homes, temporary clinics and offices, CNN reported.
“Better Shelter tackles one of the defining issues of the moment: providing shelter in an exceptional situation whether caused by violence or disaster,” said juror Jana Scholze, an associate professor of curating contemporary design at Kingston University, in a statement.
“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,” he added.
An Adidas running shoe made of recycled plastic retrieved from the ocean, Grafton Architects’ Universidad de Ingeniería y Tecnología building in Lima, Peru and Herzog & de Meuron’s new addition to London’s Tate Modern were the other nominees for the best design in 2016.
