Zaha Hadid Architects has designed a collection of tents to be used as schools, clinics, and emergency shelters for displaced communities. The 27 tents, constructed with the support of the Education Above All Foundation, have been donated to the International Organization of Migration (IOM) and the Qatar Red Crescent.

Described by the ZHA team as a “robust, cost-effective, and lightweight modular architectural system,” the weatherproof structures are designed to be easily moved and re-assembled, with components that can be upcycled or recycled. Supported by a curving steel frame clad with fabric, the internal environment offers an open-plan layout  lit by diffuse natural light.

Before the donation, the tents were being utilized as schools for hundreds of displaced Pakistani children in Pakistan, and Syrian children in Turkey. In their new capacity, ten tents donated to the IOM will serve as schools in Turkey and Yemen, while five will be used as health clinics. The remaining twelve tents will be used by the Qatar Red Crescent as shelters for displaced communities in Syria.

News of the donation of the emergency tents comes weeks after our editorial published a guest op-ed setting out a view that refugee camps should be considered cities. Previous Archinect features have also explored emergency shelters as housing for the age of mass displacement, and a student-led solution to the “permanent limbo” of refugee camps.

The tents are also one of several projects recently developed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Last week, the firm was selected to lead a new soccer stadium in Aarhus, Denmark, while also participating in a bid by the Ukrainian city of Odesa to host Expo 2030. Earlier in December, the firm unveiled a new science center project in Singapore, while in October, the studio unveiled a “stratified, geological” complex in Hangzhou, China.