Urbana de Exteriores and AIMPLAS present its project for refugees in United Nations

The rehabilitation company from Alicante (Spain), Urbana de Exteriores, has presented SURI (Shelter Unit for Rapid Installations) in the annual meeting for European providers in United Nations. In this edition, the event placed emphasis on the development of solutions and infrastructures for peace missions. SURI, developed in collaboration with AIMPLAS, was extremely welcome due to its revolutionary and innovative lodging concept.

This is the second occasion Urbana de Exteriores has presented SURI in United Nations. The company from Alicante was selected among the ten most important ones on March 20 to present its latest technological advances to United Nations Procurement Division

“Public officials and experts from United Nations were really interested in our solutions of houses for refugees, since it could revolutionize the concept lodging for millions of people living in natural disasters situations, conflicts or migration movements”, Pedro Sáez indicates, Technical Director of Urbana de Exteriores.

In this occasion, Urbana de Exteriores has participated in the European Procurement Forum for the third year in a row. The meeting took place on the 14th and 16th April in New York and was addressed to European companies interested in establishing commercial links with UN. “We think the product will be well accepted again because there is not a similar product in the humanitarian aid world”, Nathalíe Gidrón affirms, head of SURI project. “The module will allow improving the refugee’s house according to the innovation introduced: rigid structure, insulating, breathable and waterproof, and it has devices which allow taking profit of natural resources for light and drinking water supply. It is designed for emergency situations: it is light, foldable and easy to assemble. Its versatility allows different uses and ordination which improve the sociability and the dignity of the IDP”, she adds.

Urbana de Exteriores has presented its project for refugees to public officials working at the UN to study the viability of being part of its list of products to create fields in peace missions. In addition, the company of Alicante has attended a meeting in the ICEX office in New York, in which Spanish enterprises attending the event in the UN have also participated.

The R&D division of Urbana de Exteriores and the architecture study, Barbarela Studio, worked hardly in the design of SURI in recent months. Since last January, the department of civil engineering in the University of Alicante has been collaborating with them to manufacture the product. The equipment has proved the resistance and built a mockup and a prototype at the Fab Lab Alicante. This laboratory belongs to the international network of Fab Lab laboratories founded and led by the widely acknowledged investigation centre of Massachusetts Institute of Technology