SAVE OUR SOULS by Achilleas Souras is a response to the current global refugee crisis that the world is facing. It proposes the re-use of a by-product of this crisis which is the common life jacket to provide low-cost temporary shelters to help refugees: Protection in Water – Tectum (Shelter) on Land. In the past few months alone more than 450,000 discarded life jackets have accumulated on the Greek island of Lesbos, providing an abundance of building material for the project. For Achilleas, who is a 16 year old student, it all started with his toys, especially Lego. He soon outgrew the instruction sheets and would let his imagination run wild, building structures that would re-appropriate much of his parents house.

The more he built, the taller the structures would get, challenging himself to keep the structures standing despite the artificial gales of wind and earth-quakes he would generate. Fast forward to today and feeling troubled by witnessing the current global refugee crisis, Achilleas wanted to help in some way. Using his creative child -like wonder to respond to the situation he saw the life jackets as more than a throw away item. Instead he saw them as a building block much like Lego.