Design To Live: Everyday Inventions From A Refu... Apr 2026

: Inventions like a chess set carved from a broomstick or a baby swing made from recycled school desks.

: Projects such as a colonnade of arches built from local clay and stones to reference Syrian heritage, like the Arch of Triumph in Palmyra . Book Structure and Collaboration Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refu...

(2021) is a bilingual (English/Arabic) book that documents the ingenious ways Syrian refugees at the Azraq Refugee Camp in Jordan use art and design to reclaim their agency and humanity . : Inventions like a chess set carved from

Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee Camp - ACT MIT Design to Live: Everyday Inventions from a Refugee

The work is the result of a three-year collaboration between MIT's Future Heritage Lab and the camp's residents, showcasing how design can address emotional and cultural needs that standardized humanitarian aid often ignores. Key Concepts and Inventions

The book highlights over 20 projects where residents modified their standardized environments to suit their real-world social and physical needs:

: Modification of shelter designs to include front halls that protect family privacy.