Shrimp model

This model, dubbed SHRIMP (Sustainable Housing for Refugees via Mass Production), is among the thousands of designs shared at the Open Architecture Network. It would make use of one-fourth of a shipping container to house up to four people. It could be adapted to provide mobile clinics or schools, with a solar distillery on the roof providing fresh water. Should the structure be in a flood zone, it rests on pontoons that inflate automatically with compressed air canisters, allowing it to float.

Like other homes made from shipping containers, the SHRIMP is easy to transport by land or sea. Because one container ship can hold 6,400 containers, housing for some 100,000 people could arrive by a single boatload. Each SHRIMP would cost up to $4,000.

"The idea that people can go online and look at things and there's this feedback loop between designers and communities, and even the users of designs is great," designer Jeffrey Warren said of the Open Architecture Network.