For the past decade, Industrial Design Professor Bob O’Neal has been spearheading efforts to develop Project Ujima, a solution to refugee housing originally proposed by one of his students, Anthony Green MID ’93. In early September 2001, O’Neal was in Quetta, Pakistan, field-testing the most recent Ujima design for the Oregon-based agency Mercy Corps when the region suddenly took center stage as of 9.11.

“It was unbelievable, in a different reality,” O’Neal said of the refugee camps, which accommodated Afghans who fled the Taliban regime. In a moonscape of rock and dust, he found some families living in shabby canvas tents, others sleeping under scraps of canvas or in covered huts made from mounds of tumbleweed. The alternative shelters he gave them to try are circular (12' in diameter), lightweight, inexpensive and designed to withstand heavy winds, extreme daytime heat and cold nights. Internal frames are built of plastic by an alumni-owned design studio, Saprophyte (run by Jeremy Knapp ’97 ID and Jamie Marchbank ’98 ID), with exterior skins of various plastics, depending on climate conditions where the shelters will be used. The roof can be raised slightly to let in light and air, and several units can be attached to create larger living spaces for extended families or other groups.

Over the years O’Neal has worked with the late Professor Ken Hunnibell ’69 ID/MAE ’72 and various teams of students and alumni to pitch the Ujima idea to the United Nations, the World Health Organization and other relief agencies. “When students learn about the plight of refugees in very real terms and then work to design solutions, they understand that what they’re learning matters,” O’Neal says. “They understand that they really do have the ability to make a difference.”