New sleeping cabins for asylum seekers and refugees: ‘The beds radiated’ stupid proof ‘, no humanity’

Alima lived here for five months on the ninth of the month. She was first in Ter Apel, then she was sent to Assen, and now here, in Bleskensgraaf. « All Day. In This Boring Camp.  » She is on a small business park at one of the long tables in the emergency shelter.

This morning new beds will be taken in the shelter. Or actually, wooden scaffolding that are put around the standing beds, a kind of sleeping cabins. It seems something small, it is not. « Easy, it will be a big change, » says Alima. « A big, big change. » Everyone in this « camp » will be happy with it, she expects. Space, time for yourself, privacy.

She has already seen a test version, she was invited by the makers to criticize the first design. Architect Anneloes de Koff and social designer Nanne Wytze Brouwer started it a year and a half ago, on his own initiative. The municipality of Molenlanden, which includes Bleskensgraaf, has made money available. The building did not meet the humanitarian standards of the Red Cross, so improvement was needed. Now the residents of Bleskensgraaf can live in the bed, first.

Sagni now keeps his things ‘everywhere’, just like his five roommates

In the emergency shelter, the bed is the only place you have for yourself, where you can withdraw, Alima says. They are bunk beds, steel frames, rickety, with blue plastic covered mattresses. Everything seems improvised by the bedrooms: pushed things under the bed and fiddled, jackets hung at the corners of the beds. It is a small -scale daycare, 58 people live there. Some people are looking for asylum, others already have it, but have no living space yet. On average, the people who live here spend 15 hours a day in the room, on their bed. But there are also, says location manager of the Red Cross Kees Huisman, who spend twenty hours or more in the room. Some people are allowed to work, they are on the road during the day, or more often at night, night shifts.

Storage space

Outside, in the parking lot of the business park, Sagni is on with his backpack. He has been living here since the beginning, two and a half years now. Three years ago he left Eritrea. Of the new bed, or; He has heard the cabin, yes, he has also completed the survey that the designers have addressed to all residents. His wish was, for example, being able to sit upright in his bunk bed. He has the lower bed. Storage space, he is also looking forward to that. He now keeps his things ‘everywhere’, just like his five roommates. You can collect some things in two and a half years.

It is stuffy. And a bit sweaty. It is not well ventilated in the bedroom, such as more often in emergency. A DIY team installs the new bed sets on one of the women’s wings of emergency shelter. White advertising letters still stick to the window that the ten room residents share: For rent 130 m2 luxury office space. The traces of an office furniture are printed in the PVC floor. Five bunk beds are now there, and a pair of white ikea cabinets, with those square open compartments.

It’s a bit crazy, says designer Nanne Wytze Brouwer, because their field of work this morning is also the home of ten people. First there were fourteen by the way. But those people, all women on this wing, have taken place, tidy, and are now waiting. In the hallway, in the room around the corner, or in the shared dining room, or at the toilets around the corner. One woman is sitting around the corner on an office chair in the hallway. She has pulled her legs, tries to hide behind her headscarf. She wants to sleep. Someone leaves with a bottle of shampoo and a towel outside, to the shower cubicles in the parking lot around the corner.

Outside, at the entrance, the plywood parts of the new beds are under a plastic sail. The weather is crying. Inside, a point of a black -steel bed frame shoots through a plate of the suspended ceiling. That is the first bed, putting together the next beds is more flexible.

Plywood

Very late they started designing, says Anneloes de Koff. That was a challenge, because for designers the tendency is soon: designing. But first they had conversations, held a residents’ evening, handed out questionnaires. They asked the residents where they saw room for improvement, what the greatest difficulties were.

The greatest concern that came out: privacy. It is not there, hardly. The bedrooms are used for sleeping, but also for calling, doing things on your phone, studying, meditating, praying. Everything to get through the time in short. To close themselves from roommates, people make earplugs, or, if they have the lower part of the bunk bed, they hang a sheet in front of it.

The design for the cabin looks friendly, cheerful. The coffee and brewer have designed a rectangular scaffolding from light multiplex plates. It can be placed around the bunk beds that have already been used, so the existing beds just remain. With one adjustment: it is raised fifteen centimeters with intermediate pieces in the middle. This way the lower one on the bed can sit upright. The frame is used at most reception locations, so in theory the design can be rolled out in this way. The bed frame is attached to the wooden scaffolding with a few hooks: this is how it is more stable. The two cabins above and below can now be closed with curtains. They replace the bar staircase of the bed with a wooden, somewhat more passable staircase.

‘Inside’ is the cabin covered with felt, from recycled PET bottles. That felt makes the acoustics somewhat muted, more peace. And with some pins, the resident of the bed can hang something on it. Inside is also a small storage compartment.

Outside, on the foot side, two storage compartments and a coat rack have been made. Two large storage compartments slide under the bed, each with one, each with a lockable storage compartment the size of a laptop. People often sleep with, for example, their passport or important documents from the IND under their kisses, Brouwer says. That will soon be possible in such a profession.

It could have been more sober. But, the coffee says, « it has to radiate attention. Because all the places where you are staying, whether it is the bunk bed that rattles or half the plastic mattress you sleep on, that all radiates ‘bastard proof’, and not humanity. » So that is why they have said to suppliers: « We are very flexible in the type of material, but there is a lower limit. We are not going to make beds of chipboard or plastic curtains. »

That need, for good material, good proportions, something beautiful: that did not come so much from the survey that they have kept among the residents, more from the designers. « Residents are in a different situation and think privacy is the most important thing. Being upright in their bed has the most impact. Being able to store things. I think we still have the ambition to make something more than that. There is a statement behind it, » says Brouwer. De Koff: « We believe that it can radiate quality and high quality. »

And indeed, Alima is most looking forward to the tranquility that the new sleeping cabins will bring. She shares her room with seven people, four bunk beds. What is that room still like? She takes a deep breath and throws her hands down on the table top. « Veeeery Stressfull«  » Because you know, we are all different people, from different countries, together in one room.  » They, the Sierra Leoners, are just the two of them here. Or actually three, but that third countryman works, so she doesn’t count. The other is new, she is there for two weeks. Everyone goes to their countrymen, that’s how it goes here, she says: « If you come from the same country, you treat each other as a family. » She is looking forward to the new bed later, when the one in the bed above her climbs over the new stairs. It won’t shake that way anymore.

The last names of the residents are not mentioned at the request of the Red Cross for their safety. They are known to the editors.

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