BIG and to.org launch Refugee Cities, a modular plan for settlements

The starting point is a simple bit of arithmetic. If people stay in refugee camps for around two decades, Bjarke Ingels argues, calling them "temporary" no longer holds. His studio, BIG, has teamed up with to.org, which builds infrastructure inside refugee settlements, and a group of humanitarian and financial figures to launch Refugee Cities: a ten-year project to plan settlements as towns that grow, paid for by institutional investment rather than short rounds of charity.

The design rests on ten principles. A modular single-family base unit is the building block; homes cluster into neighbourhoods, then districts, which can keep expanding. At the centre sit shared spaces: a food market, co-working centre, arts and crafts hall, football field, technical workshops, a fitness rooftop, a healing garden, a health centre and training rooms. So-called Opportunity Zones for manufacturing and agriculture are meant to give residents work and investors a return over several decades.

Much depends on others. The plan needs host governments to set aside land and grant refugees the right to work, and funders to commit early capital. For now, the first phase is a prototype home at the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre in Uganda, an earlier to.org project. Worth following for anyone interested in where architecture meets policy, though there is nothing to visit yet.

Our summary of a story from Wallpaper*, published 29 October 2026. Read the original

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