iglou is an insulated, waterproof shelter for homeless people

french designer geoffroy de reynal has created iglou, an igloo-like shelter for homeless people in france. the insulated temporary home is both compact and foldable, allowing it to be built without any loose parts in just seconds. this new type of waterproof shelter has given parisian homeless people a home that remains warm even in freezing temperatures.

all images courtesy of iglou

‘I was living abroad in montenegro for a year, and there are not much people living outside,’ geoffroy de reynal told ABC news. ‘when I came back to france, I was surprised by the number of homeless in the streets, so I decided to come up with an idea to help them.’ this resonates with a study published in 2012 by the french national institute of statistics and economic studies, which states that france has around 140,000 homeless people.

made from polyethylene foam, iglou ensures thermal insulation capable of capturing the user’s body heat and creating a warm ambience inside up to 20ºC above the outside temperature. the interior of the iglou is fire resistant thanks to its aluminum coating, meaning that forgotten cigarette butts or toppled gas burners won’t be an issue.

de reynal started this project some months ago with his own money. foreseeing its impact, he then started a crowdfunding campaign which proved to be successful, receiving around $20,000 more than what he expected. ‘using my resources and the money from the crowd funding campaign, I built 20 igloos prototypes this winter and distributed 10 in bordeaux, and 10 additional in paris,’ he said.

‘my ambition is to produce these igloos on a large scale, hundreds or even thousands of them,’ geoffroy de reyna concludes. ‘I also want to make some improvements: putting wheels under the igloos to make them easier to transport, or build larger modular igloos for families.’