FLAT-PACKED REFUGEE SHELTER NAMED BEST DESIGN OF 2016
Better Shelter is crowned the Beazley Design of the Year for its outstanding contribution towards the global issue of population displacement.
Better Shelter designed by Johan Karlsson, Dennis Kanter, Christian Gustafsson, John van Leer, Tim de Haas, Nicolò Barlera, the IKEA Foundation and UNHCR has been named the Beazley Design of the Year. The annual award and exhibition curated and hosted by the Design Museum in London has included previous winners such as the London 2012 Olympic Torch and the Barack Obama Hope poster. Now in its ninth year, the award was presented at an exclusive dinner held inside the stunning central atrium at the Design Museum’s new home in Kensington.
Selected as the winner of the Architecture category, the Better Shelter pipped the five other category winners to claim the overall prize.
Better Shelter is a social enterprise driven by a mission to improve the lives of persons displaced by armed conflicts and natural disasters. Aiming to be the leader in emergency and temporary shelter innovation, they continuously develop their products together with partners, customers and, most importantly, the people who live in the shelters. Through innovative methods, they aim to create a safer, more dignified home away from home for millions of displaced persons across the world.
The project has developed safer, more dignified homes for those who have been displaced due conflict and natural disasters. Featuring a lockable front door and a solar powered wall, the shelter utilises flat-pack technology used in furniture design and has repurposed it to create a shelter that can be easily assembled and transported. Flat-packed in a two-box kit along with all the required tools, the shelter is easily assembled in about four hours. The photovoltaic panel provides enough energy to power the supplied light or to charge a mobile phone. 30,000 Better Shelters’ are already in use around the world and the judges chose Better Shelter as a clear demonstration of scalable design that has the ability to make a worldwide impact. Judges quotes: Better Shelter tackles one of the defining issues of the moment: providing shelter in an exceptional situation whether caused by violence and disaster. Sadly, we have seen many instances recently where temporary shelter was necessary. 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. Innovative, humanitarian and implemented, Better Shelter has everything that a Beazley Design of the Year should have. Dr Jana Scholze, Associate Professor, Curating Contemporary Design, Kingston University
About Beazley Designs of the Year:
Now in its ninth year, Beazley Designs of the Year celebrates design that promotes or delivers change, enables access, extends design practice or captures the spirit of the year. Someday the other museums will be showing this stuff.
BEAZLEY DESIGN OF THE YEAR 2016
Name:
Better Shelter
Designers:
Johan Karlsson, Founder & Interim MD Dennis Kanter, Designer
Christian Gustafsson, Industrial Designer
John van Leer, Engineer and Industrial Designer
Tim de Haas, Head of Technology
IKEA Foundation, Partner
UNHCR, Partner
Previous Design of the Year Winners:
2015 Human Organs-on-Chips by Donald Ingber and Dan Dongeun Huh at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute
2014 Heydar Aliyev Center by Zaha Hadid Architects
2013 GOV.UK – UK Government website by GDS
2012 London 2012 Olympic Torch by Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby 2011 Plumen 001 by Samuel Wilkinson and Hulger
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About Beazley Designs of the Year:
