Architects, refugees team up to build tiny houses in Berlin

Le-Mentzel in one of his tiny homes. The architect is hoping the small spaces will help address the issue of refugee housing. Photos: AFP

Troubled to see a long queue of asylum seekers shivering for hours on a winter’s day outside Berlin’s notoriously chaotic registration centre, Van Bo Le-Mentzel decided to take action.

“I fetched my drill and collected some wood that I found randomly in the streets and brought it to the line where people were standing, bored to death, and we just started building,” the architect says.