http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/magazine/08wwln-urbanism-t.html?pagewanted=1
Repatriation becomes a dream less dreamt by refugees around the world whos temporary "housing" solutions in camps are becoming more permanent. Is there room here for architecture to save the day?
I think I may have found an idea for my "senior thesis." I wasnt going to write one but it seems now that I have found a topic which is both very interesting and can involve what I love most about architecture: its connection to culture, current events, and the importance for it to respond to how people actually USE spaces.
Read the article, it is very intruiging. I knew that these refugee camps were bad, but I didnt realize how long people actually are forced to live there.
My new stand: since they are there for so long, they might as well be comfortable.
http://www.cunycenter.org/home
They have dealt with emergency urbanism for quite some time, I think Ill get hooked up with them when I come back. Maybe I can be an intern for them or something upon my arrival to the states. Looks like I may be taking a very humanitarian approach to architecture... how Berkeleyan of me.
http://www.cunycenter.org/node/11
Perhaps I have found an emphasis: Kenya. Maybe Ill go during my Thanksgiving break or something to volunteer out there and do some research.. The NYT article said that things always take wayyyyyy longer to get fixed than they expect them to, so chances are the issue will still be present when I go. Hah. I wonder what my father will think about THAT.
16 years ago
1 comment:
if you do decide that you want to work on this topic -- and it is a very interesting and complicated one -- feel free to contact me. I might be able to help you find your way through the books, papers, NGOs, UN agencies, and so on, that determine how these things go.
best,
Jim Lewis (New York Times)
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