Bath-led EPSRC project aims for more habitable refugee shelters

The world is witnessing the worst refugee crisis ever recorded with levels of human displacement at their highest.

Conflicts such as the Syrian civil war are leading to the creation of a new generation of refugee camps that are meant to provide temporary accommodation.

Many people remain in these camps for years, living in extreme climates ranging from 45 degrees Celsius to -10 degrees Celsius.

Now an international collaboration, led by researchers at Bath University, is hoping to improve living conditions for those residing in the camps, by designing better housing.

Conditions inside the shelters can be life-threatening, according to the university’s Dr Dima Albadra, who is herself from Syria. “It can be unbearable, especially for children, so we are aiming to design something that would reduce these extremes of temperature to a healthy level,” she said.

The three-year EPSRC-funded project, which also involves the Princess Sumaya University for Technology and the German Jordanian University, both in Jordan, and Mersin University in Turkey, will aim to design low cost and easy to construct shelters that are capable of moderating temperatures and ensuring the privacy of residents.