Hannah Klifa, France
Geoffroy de Reynal, a french engineer, designed what we call the Iglou after caming back in France after a year in Montenegro. Seeing homeless people in nearly all french street give him the desire of a solution to rising homlessness in France, or at least an idea to help them in the every-day life.
In fact, the number of homeless people have increase in France this last few years, there are about 140,000 homeless people living in France, a 50 percent increase compared to 2001. France has ensured the right of housing since nearly ten years but in most cities, this program is satured and every day, people sleep in the freezing cold. In onlu one month, eleven homeless peolpe died in Paris in january, because of cold temperatures.
He sarted the project of the iglou, and found materials that can retain body heat : aluminum foil and polyethylene foam. He explained in an intervie`w that with this material, “the temperatures inside the igloos are about 60 degrees Fahrenheit higher than outside. And it is also waterproof”.
The ingeneer distribute more than 10 of those in Bordeaux and Paris since this winter, because of the cold wave that affected France this year. He explained that even if this is not an permenent solution, it could save life. Iglou shelters also give homeless people a sens of security and dignity.
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