For over 120 million displaced people worldwide, shelter is more than a physical structure — it is survival, security, and dignity. Many build their own homes using available materials, traditions, and ingenuity. Humanitarian shelter exists along a continuum, from emergency relief to the slow rebuilding of homes, often over decades. Wireframe of Life examines that continuum through a wireframe structure, which serves as both a foundation for immediate protection and a canvas for transformation.
The installation embodies the fragility and adaptability of refuge and explores what makes a home in times of upheaval. It features two identical structures: one remains a bare frame, stripped to its essential form, revealing the skeletal frame of an emergency shelter. The other is clad in a patchwork of materials gathered from communities across several continents, mirroring real-life adaptations.
Participants
BETTER SHELTER STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN Johan Karlsson, Salem, Sweden, 1981. Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden.
Authorial Collaborators
Love di Marco (architect); Assaf Kimmel (architect); Chloé Tiziani (architect); Senay Berhe (director); Märta Aretakis Terne (head of communications)
Technical Collaborators
Zoya Kidwai (manager of sustainable habitat); Esteban Gómez (designer and researcher); Johan Granberg (architect); Alexander Holmström (blacksmith); Max Movitz (blacksmith); Alessandra Messali (installation producer); TECHWOOD (installation construction); Jitendra (bamboo worker); Satish Kumar (manager of bamboo workshop); Shan Mohammad (bamboo worker); Vicky (bamboo worker); Alcides Vides (seje artisan); Yeimi Ruiz (chin and junco artisan); Jhon Fredy Collazos (guadua artisan); Manuel Martinez Cuevas (mepa artisan); Milton Anderson Bedoya Alzate (bahareque constructor)
Team
Alina Rydbeck (producer); Mattias Jakobsson (art director); Carl Fredrik Jannerfeldt (creative director); Subhash Singh (procurement); Eva Porcuna Ferrer (sustainability expert); Miguel Acebrón García de Eulate (architect); Elvira Olsen (logistics manager); Arnar Njáll Hlíðberg, b-photo; Sara Dehlin (director of photography)
Thanks
Tom Corsellis, Shelter Centre (architect and executive director); SEEDS; STS Global; Habitat for Humanity Kenya
