Ikea Foundation Introduces Better Refugee Shelter 163
Lasrick writes "This is truly brilliant: Ikea has joined with the UN Refugee Agency to design a longer lasting flatpack shelter that includes a solar panel and UV reflecting material."
From the article: "Ikea's design, a cross between a giant garden shed and a khaki canvas marquee, is formed from lightweight laminated panels that clip on to a simple frame, providing UV protection and thermal insulation. Like an Ikea product, the polymer panels come packed in a box, along with a bag of pipes, connectors and wires – and no doubt a cartoon construction manual." And they last for around three years.
Ok.... (Score:1, Insightful)
So... the steel rod goes through the tarp and latches onto... wait... ... is that a screw? This thing better not fall apart in a week...
Re:Ok.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a whole household full of IKEA products that have served me well for years, I see no reason why the same couldn't apply to these shelters too.
Re:Ok.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I have a whole household full of IKEA products that have served me well for years, I see no reason why the same couldn't apply to these shelters too.
The difference, of course, is your Ikea furniture isn't exposed to the elements. A 3 year lifespan for a temporary shelter isn't bad...
Re:We need those here (Score:5, Insightful)
San Francisco has 8,000 homeless people. Those could help.
The problem is, where do you put them up? NIMBY ('Not In My Back Yard!!') is the watchword here.
Re:We need those here (Score:2, Insightful)
The homeless aren't refugees and can't be treated like them. 8000 crazy alcoholics with poor impulse control would indeed be a NIMBY nightmare.
Re:Ok.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Perhaps the bigger problem... (Score:5, Insightful)
While any incremental advances in design are a good thing, it seems like the timescales we are talking about here are starting to get into 'perhaps you need to re-think your approach to the problem...' territory.
12 years is really pushing the idea of 'temporary' to the limit. How long do you go before you stop trying to incrementally decrease the squalor in a given refugee camp and start to admit that either you need to get your shit together on whatever is keeping your refugee camp full, or you need to admit that you have no resolution in sight on that one, and admit that your refugee camp is now a town.
Re:Will not stop bastards (Score:4, Insightful)
this will not stop a gang of rapists cutting their way in from the side raping everyone stealing and what they like
probably better than a white sheet over a couple of wires though
If you are reduced to relying on fortified architecture for that, you arguably have bigger problems(as well as problems that should be solvable at lower cost and weight by some flavor of law enforcement, rather than fortress architecture). Tents are, naturally, pitifully insecure; but you have to go a substantial distance up the food chain before there isn't a fairly obvious flaw that a few reasonably strong guys(bonus points for users) can crack in a couple of minutes.
Re:Ok.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I know, right!
I heard that back where those refugees came from there are loads of free bullets. Why can't they eat them?! You don't even have bend down to pick them up, they're flying right around in the air at head height!!
But I guess that's not good enough for them. That's why they're coming over here into the middle of desert, stealing our barren landscape.
So selfish.
Excuse me while I go buy a new iPad.