With Maggie Program NPO, founded by the Leuven-based architecture firm DMOA, we roll out small-scale construction projects offering innovative, circular, and sustainable solutions in hard-to-reach or crisis-affected areas. Our focus lies on children and young adults in vulnerable situations, and we work for—and in close collaboration with—local communities.
Under the project name Maggie goes to, we build schools, housing, and medical centers using the Maggie Shelter innovation—a structure that looks like a tent but has the properties of a permanent building, with a lifespan of at least 15 years.
By filling the double-walled structure on-site with locally available materials (earth, sand, clay, straw), a high-quality semi-permanent infrastructure can be set up in no time. This is often in contexts where permanent buildings are not (immediately) feasible due to political, practical, or time-related constraints. In this way, the Maggie Shelter aims to bridge the gap between emergency response and long-term development.
In most cases, we manage the entire project ourselves—from custom design, fundraising, logistics, on-site construction, and delivery, to evaluation and after-service. This is always in partnership with a reliable local actor who uses, maintains, and reports on the Maggies.
With successful Maggie missions in Cameroon, Iraq, Kenya, and Morocco—in collaboration with partners such as UNHCR Kenya, Close The Gap, and other well-established local actors—we demonstrate the broad applicability of the Maggie Shelters.
In recent years, we’ve also deployed Maggie Shelters in Belgian schools that require temporary classrooms during renovations, offering a sustainable alternative to the traditional classroom containers.
In addition to building Maggie Shelters, we also apply our broad expertise as architects and engineers to support and realize (humanitarian) projects. Thanks to our experience in various complex contexts, we can respond quickly, work in a solution-oriented way, and operate without heavy bureaucracy. In doing so, we combine innovation, research, and guidance to co-create tailor-made, sustainable solutions.
