For the last few years, refugee crisis has been a burning issue around the globe. Recent victim of this crisis are the ‘Rohingya’ peoples, a stateless minority in Myanmar, who were forced to depart from their native land due to ethnic violence. This large number of people need food, healthcare and proper sanitation. But first of all, they need a proper shelter, which is temporary, low cost, and easy to build and which will provide light and ventilation while protecting from adverse climate. Under such national crisis, the students of Design Studio VIII, Department of Architecture, AIUB, proposed a project “EMERGENCY REFUGEE SHELTER PROTOTYPE| A HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE THROUGH ARCHITECTURAL VOCABULARY”. After studying different solutions, the students finally designed and built two prototype modules in real scale for refugee shelter in response to the immediate Rohingya refugee crisis of Bangladesh in the global refugee context under the guidance of their studio instructors Dilruba Ferdous Shuvra and Saiful Hasan Tariq.

The students followed the preliminary standards agreed by Care International, IFRC, UNHCR, JICA, UN/OCHA, and Netherlands Red Cross which cover the following requirements of standard room area, height, Integrity, Durability, Ventilation, Usability, Privacy and Buildability. Both prototypes are assumed to be used by 4 persons. Keeping the local context in mind, the students used locally available materials that are reusable, economic and durable. Both the structures are easy to install and dismantle. We thank AIUB to support us not only with funding but also with encouragement for this social contribution. Future collaboration with interested parties on this prototype is anticipated and will be welcomed.