A team of architecture students at the CODE department of the TU Berlin have built PLUG-IN, a pavilion addressing the Home not Shelter! Initiative. Built as a collaborative process between students and refugees, the pavilion was realized under the direction of Prof. Ralf Pasel and his team. PLUG-IN physically expands the living space to creates a responsive project that goes beyond housing needs. The project was specifically proposed and built for the Dutch Embassy in Berlin.

Responding to the precarious housing situation of refugees in emergency shelters, PLUG-IN goes beyond a living space by offering residents an active employment. The project was developed through the lens of long-term action and social-cultural integration. The project is an experimental space, a focal point and architecture that is specifically used for the festivities during the MakeCity Festival 2018 in Berlin. The communal pavilion was made to offer a unique architectural framework and allow a wide variety of uses.

The open and modular construction was made to be easily reconstructed and replicated. Designed to be a high-quality architecture that could be realized in a collaborative way, PLUG-IN was inspired by the idea of a greenhouse. Reflecting the main theme of the MakeCity 2018 festival, the project addresses themes of architecture, space, processes, and nature. The elegant design was constructed to be dismantled and then made permanently available to the refugee shelter in Berlin-Buch as a community pavilion.

The project team included: Ralf Pasel, Max Hacke with Students of TU Berlin: Alexa Bartsch, Finia Köhler, Qingqing Hu, Anna-Maria Tiedemann, Mema Abdulfatah, Dado Abdalraham, David Eder, Miriam Rieke