AllSpace creates modular refugee shelters from recycled materials

Nigerian startup AllSpace has been recognised by both the Swarovski Foundation's Creatives for Our Future programme and The World Around's Young Climate Prize for its prototypes for modular shelters.

AllSpace has created affordable, easy-to-assemble structures to address the growing refugee crisis worldwide, basing the design on vernacular forms made from on-hand and recycled materials, including aluminium, tarpaulin and 3D-printed plastic components.

"It looks like the typical Nigerian traditional African architecture, like hearts with the windows, cross ventilation and everything," AllSpace founder Blossom Eromsele told Dezeen.

"So I think for them, it just felt more like home. It was easier for them to accept that kind of form."

Eromsele has launched two prototypes in Nigeria, and said that the entirety of the structure, including logistics, costs only $120 dollars and each structure takes about four hours to assemble.

She highlighted the importance of well-ventilated structures that could be quickly assembled to respond to a crisis, adding that the shelters could be occupied for as long as two years and maintain their integrity.

The shelters come with solar-power capabilities and feature a hexagonal shape built on a mud-based platform that can be arranged to create communal spaces or family groupings.

Two layers of tarpaulin and dried grass are used for insulation of the modular shelters, which are created by Eromosele and a small team directed by her in Nigeria.

Eromosele's project was among a cohort of young designers selected for the Swarovski Foundation's programme, supported by United Nations Office for Partnerships.

The programme leverages funds and resources to highlight and bring to fruition projects by people working in areas in need of sustainable development.

The Swarovski Foundation programme also highlighted five other young designers addressing social and environmental issues.

These included Indian designer Mangesh Kurund, who created a 3D-printed "biocladding" that is designed specifically to cultivate moss and algae. This technology references natural textures, such as animal skin, and is integrated with biological matter to help the growth.

It was designed in an attempt to help reduce urban heat sinks and to bring nature into the city, Kurund told Dezeen.

Also part of the programme was a biological dye derived from plants grown in polluted areas by UK designer Aurelie Fontan.

Indonesian designer Azra Firmansyah created a wearable device that translates sound into vibrations to assist deaf and hearing-impaired people in the enjoyment of music.

Egyptian designer Moemen Sobh created textiles from ocean waste, and US-based Barimah Asare designed an external graphics card to reduce e-waste by extending the lifecycle of computers.

AllSpace was also named a Young Climate Prize Winner by the non-profit group The World Around, which highlighted how Eromsele's designs offer "dignified shelter in a sustainable manner."

The group's Young Climate Prize was launched in 2022.

Other interventions by architects into shelters include Kengo Kuma's design for refugee camps after the Turkey-Syria earthquake.

The imagery is courtesy of Swarovski Foundation.

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