Thesis 100dpi

REFUGIUM
/rɛfjuːdʒɪəm/ meaning: an area where special environmental circumstances
have enabled a species or a community to survive after extinction in surrounding
areas.
Not long after the first foundation of the city, tradition had it that Romulus opened a sanctuary
of refuge for all fugitives, which they called the temple of the god Asylaeus, where
they received and protected all, delivering none back, neither the servant to his master, the
debtor to his creditor, nor the murderer into the hands of the magistrate, saying it was a
privileged place, and they could so maintain it by an order of the holy oracle; insomuch that
the city grew presently very populous, for, they say, it consisted at first of no more than a
thousand houses.
ad aedem sacram
108 REFUGIUM
I
A Syrian toddler, dead on a Turkish beach, after the boat in which his family was attempting
to use to flee to Europe capsized at sea. Desperate families crowding a Hungarian
train station, their children sleeping on floors and sidewalks, fearing Hungary will intern
them in sinister-sounding “camps.” Greek tourism towns filling with tents and with humanitarian
workers, to accommodate the rickety boats of refugees that arrive daily at the
shores.
- THE JOURNEY IS AT THE HEART OF THE PROBLEM -
II
The starting point is an ever changing problem - the catalyst of which is more than likely
far outside the realm of architecture.
- THE ARCHITECT IS UNABLE TO SOLVE SUCH PROBLEMS -