29/10/2026
When the average stay in a refugee camp spans around two decades, the idea of a temporary settlement takes on a different meaning. Refugee Future Cities explores how these places can instead be planned as more permanent cities, supporting communities, livelihoods, and everyday life over the longer term.
Driven by Nachson Mimran and to.org’s ambition to rethink the future of refugee settlements, BIG and to.org propose a comprehensive urban plan for Bidi Bidi in northern Uganda, home to roughly 230,000 refugees today. The masterplan is informed by research visits to Bidi Bidi and Kakuma in Kenya, alongside the local expertise of Localworks, and designed to accommodate an additional 155,000 residents while connecting the foundational sections of the settlement, Zones 1 and 2. The first part of the proposal is about to take shape on site, with a prototype of the single-family base unit set to be built at the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Center and managed by Bidi Bidi resident Lomoro Joseph Bakhit.
The masterplan grows from the individual family plot to the scale of the city through a repeating, nested structure: a 250-m² family plot becomes part of a six-plot compound, then a cluster, then a neighborhood, with each organized around shared courtyards, markets, and gathering spaces. Sun-dried earth brick, laterite stone, and bamboo develop existing local building traditions into a contemporary vernacular, while productive landscapes, schools, healthcare, markets, workshops, and solar-powered infrastructure are woven throughout the city.
🖼️ BIG, Beauty And The Bit
Buro Happold