Matard, A., Kuchai, N., Allen, S., Shepherd, P., Adeyeye, K., McCullen, N., and Coley, D. (2019) 'An Analysis of the Embodied Energy and Embodied Carbon of Refugee Shelters Worldwide', The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, vol. 10 (3): 29-54. 

https://doi.org/10.18848/2154-8587/CGP/v10i03/29-54 

Abstract

The delivery of health, food, and shelter to the 68.5 million people displaced worldwide represents a significant challenge. Camps can house hundreds of thousands of people, and the provision of shelter on such a scale uses considerable amounts of energy and construction materials. Although there have been several attempts to calculate the embodied energy of small numbers of shelters, summary statistics for the embodied energy (EE) and embodied carbon (EC) in general remain unknown. This makes it impossible for those designing shelters to know where their solution sits relative to the median. The primary aim of this article is to resolve this gap by using data collected from eighty-one shelter designs in thirty-four countries to complete the first large scale and global estimate of the EE and EC of shelters. Second, it aims to introduce a web-based and open-access tool, developed to help any stakeholder or interested party obtain an idea of the EE and EC of their design. The median EE was found to be 920 MJ per m2 of footprint with a 95 percent confidence interval (CI) of 599 to 1200 MJ/m2. The median EC was 90 kgCO2e/m2; 95 percent CI [39.2, 99.6]. Importantly, when these figures were further normalised per annum of service life and statistically analysed, more robust shelters did not generally have a greater environmental footprint per annum. Just three material categories—metal, clay bricks/tiles, and concrete—were found to dominate EE and EC.

Item dAlbadra, D., Vellei, M., Coley, D. and Hart, J. (2017) 'Thermal comfort in desert refugee camps: An interdisciplinary approach', Building and Environment vol. 124: 460-477. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2017.08.016 

Abstract

Long-term encampment is a growing aspect of a growing refugee crisis. There is hence the need to ensure shelters provide a safe and suitable environment. We present the first field study including social and thermal comfort surveys and physical measurements conducted in Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, during summer and winter. This required the creation of a new Arabic thermal comfort survey based on the numerical ASHRAE scales to ensure the elimination of any ambiguities due to translating the scales. The three analysis methods used (linear, logistic and multiple logistic regression) all gave the same neutral temperature, 23 °C; however, Fanger's predicted mean vote model was found to underestimate the adaptive potential of the refugees. The comfort band found using logistic regression ranged from 28.4 °C to 17.2 °C, suggesting a significant adaptability of the refugees, but not one equal to the temperature range found on site. Issues with the clash between ventilation, privacy, security and sand ingress were identified, and this points to a need to re-evaluate shelter ventilation in general. However, given the extreme conditions recorded, natural cross ventilation alone will not be sufficient in achieving summer comfort. Combining this with the observation that, due to safety and lack of resource, the refugees have no means of heating at night, a shelter solution that successfully includes insulation, and possibly thermal mass would seem important.

Albadra, D., Coley, D. and Hart, J. (2018) RIBA President's Awards for Research 2017 Winner of the Annual Theme - Housing: 'Toward healthy housing for the displaced', The Journal of Architecture vol. 23 (1): 115-136.

https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/publications/riba-presidents-awards-for-research-2017-winner-of-the-annual-the-2

Abstract

The population of people living in temporary settlements after disasters is in the millions and the average stay in these settlements exceeds a decade. This paper reviews the literature on the design of post-disaster relief shelters in order to: establish the state of the art, identify trends and describe the academic activity of the past forty years. The analysis demonstrates that the academic engagement in this topic is limited, with fewer than sixty publications in the past four decades. Displacement camps are often situated in countries with extreme climates; however the issue of the thermal performance of shelters and their impact on health is found to be further overlooked. In an attempt to rebalance this situation, thermal surveys were conducted in two refugee camps in Jordan. The study found that the refugees were very unsatisfied with the thermal conditions in their shelters, particularly in summer. Internal surface temperatures of 46°C were recorded in September and indoor CO2 concentration levels of 2700ppm were measured in winter. In addition, this paper reported on the adaptation strategies used by refugees to cope with the heat and cold, and reported on their views on shelter design considerations and satisfaction.

Hart, J., Paszkiewicz, N. and Albadra, D. (2018) 'Shelter as Home: Syrian Home-making in Jordanian Refugee Camps', Human Organization, vol. 77 (4) 

https://www.academia.edu/37983115/Shelter_as_Home_Syrian_Homemaking_in_Jordanian_Refugee_Camps

Abstract

The lifespan of displacement camps around the globe is often measured in years or decades. Nevertheless, the establishment of camps to house people fleeing political violence is often framed as an emergency measure of limited duration. These are depicted as ‘temporary’ spaces in which people are provided with aid and support until such time that they are able to return to their ‘permanent’ homes.

In this article we focus on the actions and aspirations of camp residents to imbue their dwellings with a sense of home. Our empirical material has been generated by fieldwork in two camps in Jordan housing people displaced from Syria. ‘Home-making’ in this location calls into questions the rigid opposition between ‘temporary’ and ‘permanent’:  an opposition that, for diverse reasons, host states, donors, humanitarians and camp residents may strive to maintain, at least in rhetorical terms.

Attending to the creation of dedicated space for receiving guests, we consider the content of home-making as shaped by residents’ ideals of home in combination with the constraints imposed by institutions responsible for funding, hosting and management of the camps. While this analysis highlights the fragility and contingency of home-making it also reveals the agency of displaced people in acting to improve their surroundings and conduct normative social relations. 

Fosas, D., Albadra, D., Natarajan, S., Coley, D. (2018) 'Refugee Housing Through Cyclic Design', Architectural Science Review

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00038628.2018.1502155

ABSTRACT

There are more than six million refugees living in camps globally, primarily in places with severe climates. While camps are planned to be temporary, they can be in use for decades. This ‘planned temporariness’, despite their potential longevity, together with the pressures of rapidly emerging situations, means the construction and monitoring of demonstrators is not a primary concern for their developers. This lack of iterative design improvement results in shelters with thermal environments far from ideal and a risk of increased morbidity. Here we propose a cyclical process for improving such shelters involving the thermal monitoring of pre-existing shelters to construct validated baseline simulation models of similar shelters in other areas of emerging crisis. These models can then be evolved and improved within an optimization cycle before mass-construction and field testing. Here we demonstrate the method for the case of Azraq camp in Jordan. Starting from an analysis of field survey data which exposes a high incidence of heat-stress experienced in the shelters, a series of architectural strategies are applied to the design, resulting in significant reductions in overheating. This work suggests that the proposed cyclical approach can lead to significant improvement in conditions currently experienced in refugee camp shelters.

Fosas, D., Albadra, D., Natarajan, S., Coley, D. (2017) 'Overheating and Health Risks in Refugee Shelters: Assessment and Relative Importance of Design Parameters', Passive Low Energy Architecture Conference contribution, Edinburgh, 3-5 July 2017  

https://plea2017.net/wp-content/themes/plea2017/docs/R_PLEA2017_proceedings_volume_III.pdf

ABSTRACT

There are now more than four million refugees living in camps around the world. The majority of such camps are within inhospitable environments, often with extreme climates. This paper focuses on the thermal conditions of shelters in the Azraq refugee camp (Jordan), subject to an arid climate with high temperatures during the hot season. Due to political and other sensitivities, whole-, or multi-year monitoring of occupied shelters—and hence the empirical determination of overheating—is difficult. Instead, internal conditions in the shelters were monitored for three weeks in summer and used to validate computer models of the accommodation. These models were then used to generate annual predictions of overheating assessed through overheating criteria based on thermal discomfort and physiological indicators of heat stress. Building on these results, the performance of alternative designs specifications or shelter operation strategies were investigated through parametric analysis. The results show maximum indoor temperatures over 45°C. Overheating thresholds were exceeded for more than 20% of the year and physiological indicators suggest the possibility of health-threatening conditions. The use of alternative designs and strategies reduced overheating to nearly 2% of the year, with a steep reduction of severe heat stress indicators.

Paszkiewicz, N., Fosas, D., (2019) ‘Reclaiming Refugee Agency and its Implications for Shelter Design in Refugee Camps’, in: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on: Comfort at the Extremes: Energy, Economy and Climate. Presented at the International Conference on: Comfort at the Extremes: Energy, Economy and Climate, Ecohouse Initiative Ltd, Dubai, pp. 584–594.

https://windsorconference.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/CATE2019_Proceedings-compressed.pdf

ABSTRACT

Refugee agency refers to the notion of decision making exercised by forced migrants, and their efforts aimed at improving life in the context of displacement. As such, it has emerged as a useful concept to channel discussions about the challenges of current refugee encampment practices, which we argue encompasses consequences for the design and provision of shelter solutions. Building on the evidence collected in selected refugee camps of Jordan and Ethiopia, we suggest that acknowledging and incorporating the voices of refugees can not only enhance their well-being in climatically, socially and politically challenging environments, but it could also be beneficial to other actors such as humanitarian agencies and host governments. While we recognize the constrains arising in these contexts, we focus on the importance of adaptations and customization of shelters that we found to be the leitmotiv and, more critically, a fundamental humanizing factor of refugee experience in camps. The refugees’ freedom to make choices about their own shelters can then be used to rethink how to deliver better environments in which camp inhabitants can live in dignity. Although engineering design can only facilitate agency, rather than give it, it could help build the consensus about the pre-requisites of what constitutes truly ‘appropriate’ shelters.

Fosas, D., Moran, F., Natarajan, S., Orr, J., Coley, D.A., (2020) ‘The Importance of Thermal Modelling and Prototyping in Shelter Design’, Building Research & Information.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09613218.2019.1691489

ABSTRACT

More than 9 million people live in shelters globally, often in extremely hot climates. The thermal performance of shelters is often overlooked in the design process, despite being a consideration second only to safety in surveys of camp dwellers. Indeed, indoor temperatures exceeding 40°C have been recorded in previous studies. To aid in improving conditions, the roles building simulation and prototyping could play in forecasting shelter thermal performance as part of a new shelter design process are examined. The thermal performance of prototypes, built in the refugee camp of Azraq, was monitored during the hot season to evaluate four design approaches: (1) “blind” (uncalibrated) models, (2) calibrated models, (3) on-site design-variants and (4) off-site prototypes. These included the original shelter and six design alternatives implementing different overheating countermeasures. The results demonstrate that blind models are sensitive to the judgement of uncertainties but were still qualitatively useful. Model calibration vastly improves the agreement and significantly enhances forecasts of performance for the design alternatives, which remained similar across examined climates. It is therefore concluded that simulation and prototyping, either on-site or off-site, should be adopted within the shelter design process before mass deployment, to create better-living conditions for their dwellers.

Dima Albadra, Z. Elamin, K. Adeyeye, E. Polychronaki, D. A. Coley, J. Holley & A. Copping (2020) ‘Participatory design in refugee camps: comparison of different methods and visualization tools’, Building Research & Information.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09613218.2020.1740578

ABSTRACT

Shelters for the displaced can suffer from socio-cultural incompatibility and significant levels of occupant dissatisfaction. Participatory design (PD) is known to help reduce such issues. This is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of different PD methods at engaging and capturing users’ needs for shelter design in refugee camps. It also aimed to identify which visualization tools are best at: engaging participants; communicating designs (e.g. concept, size and materials); and facilitating proposing modifications. This is a particularly large study with 16 workshops and 161 participants. Two PD methods were deployed: (i) design-your-own (where refugees proposed their ideal shelter); (ii) adapt-a-design (where refugees evaluated and modified pre-existing shelter designs). The shelters in (ii) were presented using three visualization tools: computer models, physical prototypes and virtual reality. Design-your-own proved less engaging and led participants to produce designs similar to their existing shelters. Adapt-a-design stimulated more dialogue and was more informative. Physical prototypes facilitated engagement in shelter modifications, computer models proved least able to communicate concepts, while virtual reality was best at communicating scale and size.

D. Albadra, N. Kuchai, A. Acevedo-De-los-Ríos, D. Rondinel-Oviedo, D. Coley, C.F. da Silva, C. Rana, K. Mower, A. Dengel, D. Maskell, R.J. Ball (2020), ‘Measurement and analysis of air quality in temporary shelters on three continents’, Building and Environment, Volume 185.

doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107259

ABSTRACT

Millions of displaced people are housed in shelters that generally consist of a single room, meaning that activities including cooking, sleeping and socializing all take place in the same space. Therefore, indoor air quality can be poor, resulting in estimated 20,000 displaced people dying prematurely every year. Very few studies considered the issue and all within one country. This paper describes the first comprehensive study investigating air quality in shelters by looking at Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), Particulate Matter (PM), and CO2 in ten locations within Peru, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Jordan, Turkey and Bangladesh. It has the aim of: (i) discovering how widespread the issue is, (ii) identifying some of the causes, (iii) whether it is linked to cultural and behavioural factors, (iv) location and climate, or (v) shelters’ materials or design. Results revealed very harmful levels of pollutants that are often linked to excess mortality - with total VOC concentrations as high as 102400 μgm−3 and PM over 3000 μgm−3. The reasons for these concentrations were complex, multifaceted and setting-specific. However, it was an issue in both simple self-built shelters and mass-manufactured designs, and across all climates and cultures. In all cases, conditions could be greatly improved by improving airflow as windows were frequently blocked for various reasons. Therefore, airflow should be explicitly considered, whilst being cognisant of the local context; and when cooking is likely to occur indoors, chimneys must be fitted.

Klansek, T., Coley, D.A., Paszkiewicz, N., Albadra, D., Rota, F. and Ball, R.J. (2020) ‘Analysing experiences and issues in self-built shelters in Bangladesh using transdisciplinary approach’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-020-09783-z

ABSTRACT

There are currently 70.8 million forcibly displaced people, globally. Bangladesh hosts the largest refugee camp in the world. Much effort has gone into the research, design and delivery of mass-produced shelters. Yet most refugees live in self-built shelters using simple shelter materials. This paper aims to demonstrate the benefits of using a transdisciplinary approach for holistic data collection in such shelters. A total of 1594 households were surveyed in refugee camps in Bangladesh using diverse methods—e.g. surveys, semi-structured interviews, physical measurements. It was only because of the use of various methods that the reasons behind identified issues were discovered or quantified. For example, household surveys uncovered the issue of poor ventilation, but only the semi-structured interviews exposed the reasons behind it, while physical measurements assessed the implications of this—annual particulate exposure 13 times the recommended limit. Furthermore, several methods pointed to issues with materials, but only the focus groups discussions exposed the need for gender-sensitive technical training tailored for women on the correct use of the materials. This study demonstrates that a diverse team (humanitarian staff, building physicists, and anthropologists) using several approaches to data-gathering and working in a transdisciplinary manner has much to offer the sector, and by including quantitative physical measurements allows costed improvement plans to be developed, targets to be set and general, rather than case specific, knowledge to be generated. The findings of this study have resulted in new shelter interventions by the aid sector that were rolled out in over 70,000 shelters.

Moran, F., Fosas, D., Coley, D., Natarajan, S., Orr, J., Bani Ahmad, O. (2021) ‘Improving thermal comfort in refugee shelters in desert environments’, Energy for Sustainable Development, Vol 61: 28-45.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esd.2020.12.008

ABSTRACT

Empirical studies have shown that internal temperatures in refugee shelters are impacting morbidity, and possibly mortality. Within a displacement setting, solutions are often constrained by time, cost, material availability and local requirements. This often results in “deemed suitable” designs rather than optimal solutions. In this study, we ask which route is most appropriate to optimise thermal comfort: prototyping design improvements, which requires time but may not require significant domain expertise, or thermal modelling, which can be quickly carried out if there is expertise. In a unique experiment, a laboratory of 12 shelters, built in a desert refugee camp, was adapted by the refugees themselves with variants to improve thermal comfort. Thermal modelling and field results were compared. Prototyping, though requiring additional time, was found to offer several advantages over modelling: (a) it gives a more visceral answer, in that the agency staff and refugees can experience the improvement - this could be important as most people might not be able to relate to a numeric statement about temperature; (b) the difficulty of constructing variants can be compared; (c) the financial and time costs are identified accurately. This suggests that such prototyping experiments have great utility, conferring substantial advantages over computer-based modelling. Significantly, we show that simple adaptations can improve conditions by up to 6 °C, and that the skills exist in camps to complete such improvements.

This report looks at the likely thermal conditions inside a transitional shelter in Gaza and the improvements from various design options. The work was competed for The Palestine Shelter Cluster (a grouping of the major aid agencies) to help obtain an architectural design specification for 60,000 shelters to be rapidly delivered into Gaza under the peace accord of January 2025. The report is available here.