CaRE 3 Toolkit for Refugee Camps Redesigned. Resilient. Reusable.

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1 #RefugeeChallenge CaRE 3 Toolkit for Refugee Camps Redesigned. Resilient. Reusable. ADRESS THE NEED FOR SHELTER BUT DON T STOP THERE! UNHCR revealed that the number of global forced displaced people topped nearly 60 million in With so many people seeking for shelter and a new home the building companies and communities get under extreme pressure to deliver that enourmous quantity of homes just in time. But architecture with all its aspects, from interior to the urban environment have a much greater impact beyond providing shelter. Just the spatial layout of a refugee camp has a major impact on the well-being and social interaction of humans, through its effects on microclimate, meeting possibilities, on perception, on flow of movements and stimulating actions (Tessin: 32, Gehl: 29ff). That is why it is high time that urban planning consideres its significant contribution to integration, which has been mostly neglected up to now. USE URBAN PLANNING TO STIMULATE INTEGRATION In view of the above it is the aim of this idea to emphasize that the need for shelter is urgent, but by far not the only contribution that urban planning can help with. Build environment can be seen as an engine for a permanent (self-)integration but if done wrong also as a permanent constraint for integration processes. So even in despite of extreme urgency, those temporary accomodations for refugess have to be planned to not only maximize the potential of integraton, but making it possible as soon as they arrive. This Toolkit enables and encourages integration through the build environment. It is important to be aware of the fact, that all necessary and desired actions of refugees, NGOs or host community need a proper spatial solution that stimulates the desired actions. This submission showcases what can be achieved with a simple change of the spatial layout in refugee camps, without losing density. But that also means, build environment is able to prevent integration processes from happening if done wrong. When you think about it, we all know examples for that in our home cities. So even in despite of extreme urgency, accomodations for refugees have to be planned, to not miss the great potential of integraton, but making it even possible in most cases. Adress the need for shelter. But don t stop there! 1

2 CREATE NEIGHBORHOODS AND SOCIAL INTERACTIONS DOORS FACE TO FACE TO CREATE NEIGBHORHOODS The interaction of people is strongly emphasized when you have a group of people you can overlook. Short distances faciliate the interaction of people and are mostly given in little courtyards rather than in big squares, where you get lost in the masses (Gehl: 51f). Most refugees are travelling alone or just don t have relatives anymore, so that they rely more than others on neighborhoods for personal contacts and social interaction. FRAMING URBAN PLACES TO ENABLE SOCIAL CONTROL Squares to sit and meet have to be framed to ensure a good microclimate and an edge that ist enlivened (Gehl: 107). The simple presence of doors and windows also enables social control that prevents a lot of unwanted actions from leaving garbage to criminal acts (Newman: 14f). ORGANIZE PRIVACY Private Places help to recover and regenerate and are a personal need of every human beeing (Hamm/Neumann: 239). Traditional refugee camps ignore this basic need in most cases, respectively making it uncomfortable. Arranging containers and backyards so that people can have their place of retreat ist very easy to achieve with a courtyard layout. SPATIAL LAYOUT AS A MANAGEABLE COURTYARD A courtyard utilizes the above mentioned with creating chance encounters of neighbors. Its also adds usable private green on the backside. That can not only help to ensure the above mentioned privacy through a bigger distance to the next neighbor, it also gives room for market gardening and therefore something meaningful to do. MIXED NEIGHBORHOODS TO REDUCE INNER TENSIONS Mixing up these neighborhoods ensures social stability and minimalizes the chances of radicalisation within even further. 2

3 POSSIBILITIES TO MEET AND INTERACT FOR A HEALTHY AND STABLE ACCOMODATION As a human beeing we have the need to actively participate in society (Hirseland). The spatial conditions to fullfil their basic needs, such as sports, recreation and beeing together, helps refugees to identify with their new home, forget their personal horror and ensure their well beeing. Therefore well being can be seen as a requirement for integration. CREATE LINKS TO THE RESIDENT POPULATION Central buildings and meeting places should be used to link the integration potential of both sides. Most camps are isolated and place those buildings in a central spot where they are not easy or at all reachable for the resident population. With placing them at the transition point to the existing city both groups are linked together. Suddenly there is a place to receive and manage social dedication plus a chance of interaction of both groups through community centers that reduce the hostility towards strangers (Gehl: 43). With a simple change of location it is much easier for all groups to overcome their inhibition and either help or participate. It enlivens the integration process on both sides and faciilitates the work of NGOs. 3

4 USE EXISTING URBAN POTENTIALS TO ENABLE INTEGRATION LOCATION & TRANSFORMATION Use existing fallow lands or planned city extension sites within the city for the linking dots to function. This additionaly ensures the possibility to use existing urban infrastructures such as watermangement, electricity, internet cables, green infrastructure and especially public transportation. Don t plan just camps, plan resilient permanent city extensions, that can be reused after the refugees have found a permanent home. With the benefit, that the infrastructure can be utilized by the temporary refugee homes. CODING OF THE SITE To ensure a transformable site, the before mentioned neighborhoods need to have the size of classic plot sizes for permanent homes. In this example they have the size of a standard one-family-house with a plot of 432 m 2. In this case one neighborhood can also transform in two terraced houses with 216 m 2 each or even two units can be transformed in an appartment building parcel, so that a mixed neighborhood is easily feasible after the refugees moved into their new permanent homes. This flexible arrangement of refugee accomodations is easily achievable with the use of 20 containers and around 14 m 2 per person, but can be seen as an example for all kinds of reliable accomodations. The drafted example leads to a neighborhood of 12 people in average and around 132 people in total. And that is roughly the same amount of people compared to a camp where the hole place is lined up in a row with little to no usable public space and with no integration potential. Not to mention, that the courtyards can be stacked and allow even more density. 4

5 CaRE3 Toolkit for Refugee Camps Redesigned. Resilient. Reusable. CaRE3 ADRESSES ALL FIVE BRIEFS Improve shelters and reception centres To foster personal development while whaiting To bring refugees and host community closer to one another To exchange essential information with refugees To maximize the potential of refugees Gehl, Jan: Städte für Menschen. Berlin: Jovis, 2015 Hamm, Bernd / Neumann, Ingo: Siedlungs-, Umwelt- und Planungssoziologie (Leske+Budrich), Opladen 1996 Hirseland, Kathrin: Gesellschaftliche Teilhabe und aktive Mitgestaltung fördern Empfehlungen des bundesweiten Integrationsprogramms. 2010, abrufbar unter: blob=publicationfile Newman, Oscar: Creating Defensible Space,1996. Abrufbar unter: Tessin, Wulf: Freiraum und Verhalten Soziologische Aspekte der Nutzung und Planung städtischer Freiräume (VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften), Wiesbaden