HOME FURNISHINGS
The vital MoMA exhibit Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter examines refugee housing. At a moment when millions globally have been displaced, and more are displaced each day, the question of how to house them is vital. This exhibit is (disappointingly) small and gives only a glimpse into the challenges and horrors. In the end it might be most affecting for leaving a visitor with so many questions. What minimal quality of shelter is required? How can individual shelters make a community? Is it correct to build temporary shelters? What is the image of a refugee shelter? And, most importantly, What is the difference between a shelter and a home?
The most powerful artifact on display, standing at the center of the gallery, is a Better Shelter, a structure designed, fabricated and funded by the IKEA Foundation in collaboration with UNHCR. So far 30,000 Better Shelters have been deployed to refugee camps in
Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East. The Shelter exploits IKEA’s expertise in economies of manufacturing, shipping and assembly. It’s a small hip-roofed structure, about the size of a detached suburban two-car garage, built from plastic panels that are shipped flat and assembled on the ground in two hours by a team of four adults. The Shelter is spacious enough for five adults, affords more privacy and protection than a tent, and can be personalized very simply by finishing the interior with posters or wall coverings. It’s profile gives it the image of a (suburban, American) house, while its materials give it the feeling (flimsy, airless, beige) of a FEMA trailer.
In an essay accompanying the exhibit photographer Henk Wildschut, whose lyrical shots of informal settlements in Calais might be the emotional highlight of the exhibit, explains, refugees “carry on being human in an inhuman situation.” People who have been displaced will likely make the most of minimal resources. But the challenge remains. Can we design a refugee shelter that maximizes value, transportability and constructibility, while it also supports human dignity? IKEA revolutionized the industry by mass-producing handsome, inexpensive furniture that shapes an environment of modern comfort. Will their foundation aim even higher, and make homes rather than shelters?