A minus carbon eco-cycle earthen refugee shelter : a feasibility study

Forced migration due to wars and political conflicts create an urgent need for temporary shelters in hosting countries. Constructing new housing projects is not only economically burdensome but also requires a great deal of time and, most important, represents an environmental burden when the shelter reaches its end of life. This study discusses a design proposal for a 37 m² eco-cycle earthen refugee shelter that could be built with the help of seven people in 11 working days. The study has adopted an experimental, participatory and living lab meth-odology for a physical prototype as a proof of concept. The key idea of this eco-cycle shelter is to reach net mi-nus carbon emissions during material extraction, building construction, operation and after end of life. As this project is still ongoing, this paper will confine itself to discussing the project’s main idea for reducing carbon emission and will focus on the feasibility of an earthen wall structure skeleton as a minus carbon agent. The pro-totype is designed for the cold climate of Sweden but the methodology can be applied in different climates. Ben-eficiaries of this project need not be confined to refugees. It can be extended to house the majority of the world’s urban poor