Conflicts and natural disasters make people homeless everyday. More and more designers, architects and furniture companies are involved in trying to find creative solutions to solve this major problem. Recently, the Droog Foundation, an association founded by the Dutch design company Droog, hosted a conference to point out the importance of this specific theme. Guests of the symposium were the architect Theo Deutinger, IKEA Foundation’s Jon Spampinato, and the Dutch illustrator Jan Rothuizen. All the featured personalities are committed to fight homelessness and create substantial, lasting change for people living in some of the world’s poorest communities.

Theo Deutinger focuses his action on the socio-political tragedy, which is happening at our European borders. In the past 24 years more than 19 000 people died in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean Sea to reach Europe. Deutinger proposes the idea of EIA, Europe in Africa, a piece of land, rented for 99 years by the European Union from an African state that borders the Mediterranean Sea. EIA would be the first truly European city, yet would be entirely run by people who want to become Europeans. After living and working 5 years in EIA its inhabitants would be granted with a European passport.

Jon Spampinato, the Head of Communication & Strategic Planning at the Ikea Foundation, promotes campaigns to fund holistic, long-term programs to provide better living conditions in developing and troubled countries. The IKEA Foundation started to produce 10 000 of its flat-pack temporary shelters designed for refugees – these portable houses called Better Shelters can be built in four hours without the need for tools. The Ikea Foundation will supply the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) with these units, which will be distributed globally to displaced families and communities later this year.

Jan Rothuizen, on his side, has a rather creative approach. Together with multimedia journalist Martijn van Tol, photographer Dirk-Jan Visser and web-developer Aart Jan van der Linden he created Refugee Republic. Refugee Republic is an interactive transmedia documentary about everyday life in Domiz Camp, a Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq. The aim of the project is to enrich the existing public idea about refugee camps with an anatomical outline of people and their practices in everyday camp life with the use of drawings, film, photography, sound, and text.

Further highlights include the futuristic U-Domes by World Shelters, developed after Hurricane Katrina by American architect Bruce LeBel. The shelters have been helping the homeless through the River Haven program in Ventura, California, and have been implemented in Haitian refugee camps since November 2014.

More information on www.droog.com.

Picture courtesy of Droog Foundation.