More Than 2,000 Lives

IED Kunsthal Bilbao - Student: Ibaya Legorburu

Academic year

2025/2026

This project explores how design can help reduce mortality along maritime migration routes by turning time into a tool for survival.

Every crossing of the Mediterranean is a race against time. Developed as a Final Degree Project in Product Design, this research investigates the potential of design to address one of the most pressing humanitarian crises of our time by identifying opportunities for intervention that could help save lives at sea.

Every year, thousands of people risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean in search of a better future. In response to this reality, the project asks a fundamental question: What role can design play in reducing mortality along maritime migration routes?

The research begins by analysing the main risk factors encountered during the journey in order to identify the critical moments where a design intervention could make a meaningful difference. Rather than simply developing a product, the project proposes a solution that is viable, ethical and operationally realistic, with the aim of increasing people's chances of survival.

The project views design as a discipline capable of addressing complex challenges at the intersection of social, technological and humanitarian issues. From this perspective, every design decision seeks to provide something invaluable: time—time to survive, time to be located and time for rescue teams to arrive.

Beyond its technical proposal, the project invites reflection on the social responsibility of design and its capacity to create solutions with real impact. Because when it comes to saving lives, designing also means creating opportunities for a story not to end at sea.