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ABSTRACT<br />
The refugee crisis is an omnipresent polemic that is widespread<br />
throughout local and international news. Particularly within the recent<br />
war that has struck Syria, the influx of migrating refugees has hit an all<br />
time high, topping that even of the migration of refugees seen during<br />
WW2. With currently over 60 million people displaced within their own<br />
countries and globally, the problem is one of the most crucial facing<br />
humanity at this point in time. There is yet a further relevance to the<br />
situation which has now become too large to ignore. It is a problem<br />
that has not been dealt with on a historic level, with very little theory<br />
or concept developed around a larger solution to many of the issues<br />
that refugees face, further more there are predicted to be over 250<br />
million people who will become refugees within the next 20 years.<br />
The major problem which we face as architects when confronting<br />
this plight on a global level is that the reasons for people becoming<br />
refugees are often outside of our scope of work. This is due to the<br />
fact that they are produced by political, economical, natural disaster,<br />
famine, civil war or other reasons. It is also not our place to work with<br />
a god complex, prescribing a predetermined formula on how different<br />
cultures and different countries should deal with the influx of refugees<br />
within their cities, as again the number of role players from outside<br />
our field are too high. The scope of our work therefore falls between<br />
this. The focus on the Journey taken by the refugee to get from point<br />
A to point B. This is the part of the refugee’s struggle that is often most<br />
traumatic, with human trafficking, exploitation, rape, sinking boats<br />
and closed borders just some of the many obstacles that they face.<br />
9 REFUGIUM<br />
- AS ARCHITECTS WE MAKE A STAND -<br />
The solution lead to us taking the JOURNEY out of this migration and<br />
projecting this as a line encompassing the globe. This line utilizes the<br />
data analyzed as well as the lessons learned from the existing refugee<br />
camps in order to formulate a Utopic critique of the current crisis,<br />
geo-political contestations and lack of large scale intervention within<br />
the realm of architecture and urbanism. A series of doors will allow the<br />
refugees enter the structure and at the same time exit it, as long as the<br />
inhabitants behind the door are kind enough to unlock it.
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