The project seeks through intervention and enablement to improve mechanisms for addressing shelter in the MaeLa refugee camp on the Thai-Burma border. We discovered a population of 50,000 people living in 10,000 houses forcibly dependent on NGO handouts, relying on building materials distributed in the same way as food rations.

The proposal was a design methodology based on collaboration between all the stakeholders involved in a typical house; between us and the carpenters in the camp, the camp committee, local and regional NGOs and consultation with the UN. The result of the collaboration was a 1:1 prototype house built within the camp that address environmental and constructional issues.