Refuge Housing

Imagine stepping out into your front garden to fetch the morning paper.

Beneath the old weeping birch stands a newly designed architectural dwelling.

It looks like the annex you always imagined your teenage children might one day live in—if you could persuade them to move out there.

Or imagine looking down into the courtyard of your housing association and seeing the same architectural dwelling type, which has begun appearing in several places around the city.

But instead of teenagers in the unit, you see a family greeting you from their breakfast table.

They fled from Syria and are now gathered around the old garden table you forgot to put out for bulk waste last autumn.

Hamid, formerly a carpenter in Aleppo, has restored the old furniture. He also helps out at the local sign workshop, while the children attend school.

These new, affordable and modern Danish architect‑designed homes make it possible for ordinary citizens to invite refugees to live on private plots, on housing association land, and on unused public sites.

Idea developed in collaboration with Johan Galster.

Prototype developed in collaboration with Orbicon, the Fogh Foundation, KAB, FFB and WHR Entreprise.