Situated Design
My project connects to the idea of situated design in a more abstract form, as by nature of it being emergency shelters, its context is more need based that area specific. Through the talks and discussion over the week-long workshop it did help me understand and see how design is never neutral, and that it always sits inside political, social and spatial conditions. Even migration routes have become political. Borders are not just physical lines, but are systems that decide who can move, and who isn’t “allowed” to.
Even inside refugee camps, which are meant to be temporary safe spaces, there are internalized divides and borders. These divisions are what decide access, control and infrastructure, These hierarchies that shape how people live within the camp itself. These talks have made me question how I can use space itself as a tool of power.
Another set of talks that focused on what it means to live in a world of surveillance, in spaces like camps I’m sure that feeling is exponentially higher than what we experience. Today infrastructure is tied to monitoring, identification and control. But what am interested in is the idea that surveillance systems can be reversed; that the same infrastructure that controls us can potentially be reimagined as systems of autonomy and collective self-reliance.
My project lies within these reflections. The context is not the disaster itself- not the flooded land or refugee camps- but the empty undefined ground where emergency shelters begin. It focuses on what remains after a crisis. In those barren conditions, the design of emergency shelters that don’t just provide a roof, but also create spaces for dignity and community.
In contrast to imposed borders and division, the project proposes connections. I want to look at how architecture in such conditions can move away from control and desperation to instead build systems that regenerate, sustain and restore dignity.