Emergency Architecture / Displacement Urbanism

Due to wars and conflicts, and more recently due to financial crises and climate change, many people are forced to leave what used to be their home. They are forced to squat in abandoned building, live in refugee camps, seek refuge in slums, or rent in new cities and countries trying to establish new lives. Taking into consideration the remarkable acceleration of refugee counts worldwide, and especially in the Arab region, this course seeks to offer architecture students in their last year, the chance to engage with topics related to forced migration. Particularly, the course focuses on the role of the architect and urban planner in the debate and encourages the students to develop their own attitude and opinions around the matter.
Throughout the course, the students will learn about the current debates and critiques related to the design of the shelter; the role of the international and local actors during emergencies; the urban dynamics and forces that both produce and embrace displaced populations; and projects – on the planning/development scale, or architectural scale, that aimed to engage with, or improve, the lives of displaced communities in different parts of the world.
While this course will allow the students to self-inquire about further themes related to the course such as shelter design, appropriation practices, ethnography, refugee camps planning and management, local and international actors, humanitarianism, and development programs; the course will offer a special focus on contemporary crises and refugee influx occurring in the Arab region and utilizing on the vast field of literature emerging from scholars in the Arab Levant.
Finally, the course offers the students the chance to develop interest in contemporary issues affecting Arab cities in particular, while maintaining a global perspective that could facilitate their further engagement with the topic through critical urban research, innovative design methods, and politically informed spatial practice and community-driven urban development.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the students will be able to:
Knowledge and Understanding
a.1. Demonstrate knowledge about main topics in the field of emergency architecture and displacement urbanism such as: refugee camps, shelter design, homemaking, border control, camps urbanization and planning, and humanitarian architecture.
a.2.  Showcase a deep understanding of the impact of refugees and displaced populations on cities, urban systems and neighborhoods.
a.3. Explain how designing with/for displaced communities such as: refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), climate migrants and asylum seekers, can be both, beneficial and challenging.

Intellectual Skills
b.1. Employ different analytical lens to assess the impact of forced migration and displacement on space across scales (camps, cities, shelters, homes, neighborhoods and networks).
b.2.  Restate some of the main theories, literature and influential scholars in the field of refugee studies with special focus on architecture and urbanism.
b.3.  Learn about how displacement and emergencies affect facing Arab cities today.

Professional and Practical Skills
c.1. Learn about actors involved in the humanitarian field (UN actors and local relief agencies) and possibly work with them in the future.
c.2. Conduct research concerning displaced communities in Egypt, which could be a door opener for work opportunities in the field of research, design and planning.
c.3. Imagine different scenarios for urban development in the context of forced migration, emergency and displacement.

General and Transferrable Skills

d.1. Investigate further topics in the intersection between forced migration, emergency architecture, and urban studies.
d.2.  Question given theories and presumed ideas concerning refugee management.
d.3.  Compare the urban policies between different cities affected by emergencies and displacement.