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Medal Winner 2004
SOM Foundation UK Award

Rapid Deployment / Refugee Camps

Part 2 Project 2004
Hani Fallaha
Lina Maria Lozano Cely
Ingrid Lorena Cuervo Murillo
Natalia Jimena Mendez Serrato
Jose Bernardo Uribe Troncoso
Architectural Association London | UK
The project is developed as a response to the very urgent situation of large scale displacement of people within the Middle East. The project is defined by two material parameters: sand and wind (environmental factors) and pneumatic membranes (material system). A generative tool was devised as a culmination of this research. Starting with a geometrical exploration of pneumatic membranes, from a single chamber component (single flip cushion), to the micro and finally the three dimensional macro aggregate, the thesis explored the geometric articulation in relation to the logic of the material system and its performance within a highly specific environment.
Hani Fallaha
Lina Maria Lozano Cely
Ingrid Lorena Cuervo Murillo
Natalia Jimena Mendez Serrato
Jose Bernardo Uribe Troncoso


The project of a rapidly deployable pneumatic system for a refugee camp in the desert areas in the Middle East seems at first sight counterintuitive. However, the intelligence of a differentiated low-tech material system in relation to its performance and inhabitation is brilliantly embedded in the scheme. The project offers a system that continues to evolve through perpetual interaction with the user and the environment, and results in an integral provision for shifting pattern of inhabitation, sophisticated deployment, maintenance and environmental control strategies, while setting the scene for settlement development over time.

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2004
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