TU Delft students craft shelters for stricken Syria and Turkey

Currently, thousands of affected residents of Turkey and Syria are bivouacking in the icy outdoors without basic necessities. As is often the case in a disaster zone, there are insufficient suitable shelter or emergency locations to accommodate all those affected by a disaster. At the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, a team of students and experts took the initiative to use their expertise to design a modular shelter.

The initiative START (Syrian Turkish Architectural Recovery Team)
The START – Syrian Turkye Architectural Recovery Team Initiative – was founded by a group of students to educate fellow students about the issue. They also want to use joint knowledge and expertise to create a modular shelter during a workshop week. The best aspects of all designs will be combined into a 1:1 prototype which will be made and tested physically. Then this design will be realized in locations in Turkey and Syria where it is desperately needed now.
“It is very difficult to do nothing while this catastrophe unfolds, especially when we think about what we could do as a team. The goal of our work and our motivation is to provide our students with sufficient knowledge about the affected area, earthquake-resistant constructions, building culture, program supplies, etc.” This initiative now focuses on the disaster in Turkey and Syria but this knowledge should also resonate with students for future disasters around the world.

Workshop week
A workshop week will be held from 20 to 24 March, supported by lectures. The goal of this week is to give BK students the possibility to work together in groups and design a prototype house for the affected region. Various professionals and specialists are asked to mentor the students, teach and support throughout the workshop week.