Architecture for Refugees

SPACE International Conference 2020 on Refugee Crisis, Architecture and Urbanism will be held in London on 15-16 May 2020. We hope that the Conference will be an ideal platform to discuss the recent advances and research results in the intersection of the fields of architecture, urban studies, sociology, anthropology, political science, art history, gender studies, urban studies, architecture, literature, history, life sciences, poetry and so forth. The Conference aims to re-think the refugee crisis in relation to architecture and urbanism. SPACE Studies of Planning and Architecture invites researchers, policymakers and social partners to share knowledge from their fields of expertise according to the themes of the Conference.

By the end of 2016, the total number of forcibly displaced people worldwide reached 65 million, as opposed to 37 million a decade earlier. 21 million of them are refugees and nearly 5 million of them are Syrians who have fled the armed conflict that started six years ago. Syria’s northern neighbour Turkey has become the country hosting the highest number of refugees, with nearly three million.
One of the Turkish cities where the Syrian refugees, labelled as “guests” by the Turkish government, flock to is Kilis. The city, on the Turkey-Syria border north of Aleppo is at the epicentre of the Syrian refugee crisis, being the first arrival point for hundreds of thousands of people. After having received more than 130,000 Syrian refugees, Kilis is now the only city in Turkey where refugees outnumber locals and the sudden influx of refugees has changed the pattern of urban life in Kilis dramatically.
The ongoing conflicts since 2011 have brought the issue of refugees from a temporary situation to a "permanent temporariness" status. The question of space is important because it is by cause of space and its appropriation that refugees can survive and progress. The right to appropriate refers to the refugees’ right to make use of their urban space. 
In the context of this research, the living conditions of the “Syrian Guests” that have taken refuge in Kilis and the current profile of the city will be discussed. The focus will particularly be on the impact of the Syrian population on Kilis’s traditional city centre and urban conservation sites as well as the protection of these areas, and the negative impact of the Syrian Guests’ on the city’s identity, if any, will be addressed. As a result of this research, the observed results of the current situation are analysed and shared.

Keywords: refugees, identity, Syrian Guests, Kilis, Turkey.

In 2011, Indonesia was named as the most vulnerable country to disaster in the world based on data released by the United Nations Agency for the International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction. The high position of disaster-prone countries is calculated from the number of people at risk of losing their lives if natural disasters occur. Indonesia itself is ranked highest for the threat of tsunami hazards, landslides and volcanoes. So architecture in Indonesia really needs to pay attention to disaster-prone rules in order to create a balance between humans and nature. But what if the disaster has already happened? In Bali in 2017, for example there was an eruption of Mount Agung which required tens of thousands human lives living around the mountain to evacuate, leaving their homes, livestock and other property. They fled to banjar / village halls, schools, government offices and other locations that were willing to accept, many even slept in open fields only with tents from tarps. Conditions in refugee camps that are limited and uncertain lengths of time threatening their mental health. So it is interesting to know how architecture in the evacuation area can not add burden to the mind of refugees. The research method will be conducted by reviewing the literature on disaster, refugee psychology and temporary architecture for refugees, especially in Bali. The research will produce a building model that is temporary (can be easily dismantled) with materials that are easily available in all parts of Bali, as well as structuring the mass of the refugee village building. The results of the study are expected to be able to help local governments, even community groups independently to take advantage of a more humane architectural model of displacement so that the living standards of refugee communities due to disasters can approach their place of origin first.