Windbreak shelter. Polish students designed a temporary shelter and won an international competition!

Dobrawa Bies

18 of May '22

Windbreak shelter project won first prize in Asylum competition

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Students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology Natalia Junger, Natalia Walkiewicz, Aleksandra Wasilenko and Angelika Zysiak won First Prize in the international architecture competition Asylum organized by the UNI competitions platform. The task was to design a temporary shelter for Burmese refugees fleeing religious persecution. Windbreak shelter is a design for a compact unit that is easy to assemble and transport and uses local materials and waste for construction.

According to the organizers' website, hundreds of thousands of Rohingja Muslims fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 in Myanmar as a result of repression and human rights abuses. The government of Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country, denies citizenship to the Rohingjas, and as an ethnic group they are discriminated against and persecuted, undocumented and therefore unable to receive universal education, medical care or seek employment.

The largest camp in Bangladesh is Cox's Bazar

temporary, multi-purpose shelter

Bangladesh has become a refuge, but refugee camps are now overcrowded, there is poverty and high mortality, and the harsh climate is not conducive to settlement. For this in these harsh conditions, an architectural intervention is important - creating a temporary shelter that can be prototyped, replicated, modular and portable. In this way, the shelter could be deployed for use in any area of the disaster-stricken world that lacks basic amenities. The design had to be functional and flexible enough to be used in different ways, and the multifunctional space should accommodate up to six people.

The Windbreak project won first prize in the Asylum competition

project from Poland with First Prize

The results of the competition were preceded by the war in Ukraine, which made the problems of mass migration and the need for aid and justification for the construction of temporary shelters all the more apparent. The winning project by Polish students: Natalia Junger, Natalia Walkiewicz, Aleksandra Wasilenko and Angelika Zysiak were created as part of the ProtoLab course at the Wrocław University of Technology.

project idea diagrams

Our project was inspired by the functional solutions of residential buildings in the regions of Myanmar and Bangladesh. We paid special attention to ventilation and shading solutions. We were also inspired by houses built on water and ways of using it. Meanwhile, we took the form of the structure from local and traditional ways of building and combining elements, such as bamboo with ropes, the authors say.

Windbreak shelter

Windbreak shelter was designed as a temporary structure that can be set up in a short time and with little effort. An important aspect of the shelter is its mobility and ease of transportation, as well as the use of local materials such as bamboo and recycled materials - membrane, tires and leftover materials from garment factories in Bangladesh.

One module can accommodate six people

The shape and form of the building depend on weather conditions and the relatively small space on which to place the shelter. Rectangular projection allows convenient use of space in the building, allows modular combination of units and does not take up much space. In addition, segmented walls make it possible to create any size of structure to suit your needs and location.

The design has been adapted to the tropical climate

adaptation to tropical climate

Air circulation in a tropical climate is extremely important, and to ensure it, the students designed a mono-pitched roof with air inlets and outlets in the side walls.

In addition, a mesh of cut-out plastic bottles attached to the top of the walls speeds up air exchange by compressing the particles in the neck of the bottle, causing them to move more quickly outside the building, the architects explain.

Plastic bottles have also been used to store rainwater. To ensure proper ventilation of the building, the authors placed additional air inlets in the wall where the entrance is located. The inlets were covered with mesh to protect the building from animals.

The walls are made of membranes

tires, bamboo, recycled materials

The building was founded on piles anchored to the ground using tires filled with mortar. The building's elevation above ground level is also due to climatic conditions - frequent and heavy monsoon rains wash the buildings, creating flowing streams of dirty water and mud. The floor, placed one meter above ground level, consists of rope-connected bamboo, which was then covered with plywood.

The building is founded on piles anchored to the ground with tires filled with mortar

The wall and roof structure also consists of bamboo load-bearing elements connected by rope and covered with waterproof tarpaulin. Additional stiffening and insulation is provided by a layer filling the space between the bamboo and the membrane, which is made up of recycled materials from garment factories.

The space between the bamboo and the membrane is filled with recycled materials

The membrane covering of the walls is connected by welding and allows any form of shaping. The facility is designed with two types of wall segments - made of opaque tarpaulin and semi-transparent transparent film, which act as interior lighting. The design of the entire facility ensures mobility, easy separation of spaces and does not take up much space during transportation.

The interior of one of the modules

Read also about the project Fan House - a universal temporary shelter by Zuzanna Boberek and Piotr Gajdka, which received an honorable mention in the Disaster Relief Shelter - Reinventing the tents competition.