An example from my portfolio of research and urban service design from 2007. The Dadaab refugee camps were founded on the Kenya-Somalia border in 1991 for 20,000 Somali refugees. Today it is the world's largest refugee settlement with 400,000 inhabitants displaced from throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
My intent was to create a better shelter design for humanitarian agencies, which led to an intensive 3 month study of the social and urban fabric to understand the connections between the informal economy, security, the natural environment, and spatial distribution of land and housing use.
This project resulted in improved shelter design, improved housing programs among refugee populations, and has greatly influenced the design of future refugee camps.
