The Save Our Souls Emergency Shelter
by Achilleas Souras
Save Our Souls, by Achilleas Souras, is a response to the current global refugee crisis. It proposes the re-use of a by-product of this crisis — the common life jacket — to provide low-cost temporary shelters for refugees: Protection in Water, Shelter on Land. In the past few months alone, more than 450,000 discarded life jackets have accumulated on the Greek island of Lesbos, providing an abundance of building material for the project.
For Achilleas, who is a 16-year-old student, it all started with his toys, especially Lego. He soon outgrew the prescribed designs on the instruction sheets and would let his imagination run wild, building structures that would re-appropriate much of his parents’ house. The more he built, the taller the structures would get, and he challenged himself to keep the structures standing despite the artificial gales of wind and earthquakes he would generate.
Fast-forward to today and, troubled by the current global refugee crisis, Achilleas wanted to help in some way. Using his natural curiosity to respond to the situation, he saw the life jackets as more than a throw-away item. Instead, he saw them as a building block, much like Lego.
