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Transitional Refugee Housing: Exploring the Architectural Integration of Resettlement

Anderson, Todd
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554121207239843

Abstract Details

2019, MARCH, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture.
The practice of architecture is inseparable from the people who experience, interact, visit, and inhabit the built environment. It is for this reason that architecture as a discipline must always contribute to the conversation regarding any challenge that humanity faces. This is true in one of the most dominant global issues of the 21st century, the refugee crisis. Architects and designers have been quick to interject solutions to the dilemma, especially when addressing the thousands of temporary shelters needed to house millions of forcibly displaced persons in refugee camps across the world. However, as forcibly displaced persons move beyond a temporary camp environment and are resettled into another country, the role of the architect has receded. In many countries, including the United States, refugees and asylum seekers are usually placed in inadequate apartments in unwelcoming neighborhoods. Although they are provided with many services by local agencies, the services cannot compensate for the negative effects of housing related stresses. Studies by both architects and researchers have found that housing for refugees often are insufficient in terms of size, layout, safety, and tenure among others, and that they are often unaccommodating to the culture and prior lifestyles of the forcibly displaced. These studies have shown that this has a detrimental effect, causing continual stresses on the refugee that continue the physical, mental, and emotional trauma of displacement. This thesis argues that this is a problem of design, and that the discipline of architecture should reinsert itself as a prominent voice into the conversation regarding refugee housing and the architecture of resettlement. By combining findings of the previously mentioned studies and other relevant literature with an analysis of work related to this discipline, a new design methodology will be established with the intent to create transitional, supportive housing that alleviates, rather than amplifies, the inherent stresses of post-displacement resettlement from the point of entry into the United States until the point of self-reliance of the refugee. This framework will then be implemented through the design of transitional housing clusters in Cincinnati, Ohio. With this new framework of design, housing for refugees will move beyond being just shelter and become a sanctuary, helping the healing and recovery of the forcibly displaced.
Michael McInturf, M.Arch. (Committee Chair)
Aarati Kanekar, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
172 p.
Architecture
housing; refugee crisis; refugee resettlement; transitional housing; supportive services; Cincinnati

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Anderson, T. (2019). Transitional Refugee Housing: Exploring the Architectural Integration of Resettlement [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554121207239843

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Anderson, Todd. Transitional Refugee Housing: Exploring the Architectural Integration of Resettlement. 2019. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554121207239843.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Anderson, Todd. "Transitional Refugee Housing: Exploring the Architectural Integration of Resettlement." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2019. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1554121207239843

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1554121207239843
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.