Swedish nonprofit Better Shelter has announced the provision of 5,000 emergency shelters in Turkey following the major earthquake that has so far killed over 47,000 people across the country and neighboring Syria. The shelters were made possible through a EUR 10 million (approximately USD 10.5 million) donation by the IKEA Foundation.

“The generous support provided by the IKEA Foundation will give crucial protection to many thousand people in this difficult time,” said Better Shelter’s managing partner Johan Karlsson in a statement. “We are proud to support our humanitarian partners in Syria and Türkiye working day and night to help survivors. We now ask businesses to step forward and join our efforts to support even more people who have lost everything.”

With hundreds of thousands of people remaining homeless in the two countries following the earthquake, Better Shelter’s temporary units will be deployed by humanitarian partners including the Turkish Red Crescent in Hatay, Turkey. The 5,000 units are in addition to the 10,000 modular shelters the nonprofit has already deployed since 2020, where they serve as temporary housing, field clinics, and classrooms for internally displaced Syrians across northwest Syria.

The modular shelters are developed by the nonprofit and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) with the support of the IKEA Foundation. In addition to Syria and Turkey, the shelters have been deployed as homes, classrooms, and clinics across 80 countries including Ukraine, Bangladesh, and Colombia.

Shipped in flatpacks, the modular units can be assembled without tools in hours to protect against harsh weather. Each shelter is also equipped with a lockable door for safety and privacy as well as a solar-powered lamp.

News of the units comes weeks after Zaha Hadid Architects unveiled their collection of emergency shelters for displaced communities in Pakistan and Turkey. Our editorial also recently published a guest op-ed setting out a view that refugee camps should now be considered cities. 

Previous related Archinect features have explored emergency shelters as housing for the age of mass displacement, and a student-led solution to the “permanent limbo” of refugee camps.