PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
1.1 Precedent
Considering the recent cases for the refugees (for example, Kobe and Rwanda ), this project attempts to provide wider solution concerning the shelters in the case of Kosovo or to the potential refugees in the future. As can be seen in the precedent cases, refugees are confronted with unfortunate circumstances by living in a tent whose capacity is strictly limited; a person forced to live separately from his/her family, small family living with strangers, and large family squeezed in small spaces. Moreover, living in tents demand both physical and mental strain, because of their unavailability to secure privacy.
In our project, curtains hung from the ceiling function as dividers similar to a personal tent, which make possible to secure personal spaces (individual or couple ), and the free-plannable walls filled with the debris supplied locally serve as a protector against their environmental enemies, which also allow the refugees to select various arrangements according to their relationship in the society. It is necessary to allow them to find the spontaneous relationship, and their position in the community.
What is most important is that they revive the existing culture by themselves, because “culture”, as the word implies, is the process of “cultivating” themselves in their own life. Even if the systematic shelter will be introduced, it is the people concerned who have to recognize and verify their own cultural life locally.
1.2 Community
The walls which separate/define the functions of spaces are constructed with debris which can easily be supplied locally. Filling the steel wire-mesh wall with some different materials allow to adjust the density of wall; the wall filled with large debris of concrete will have many voids in the walls. The wall filled with bricks and small debris will be high density wall. The density of wall should differ according to the environment/culture. For example, high density wall is required inevitably in the cold areas, whereas people regard their privacy more important would adjust the wall so that the density is low as the wall faced outward.
Thus, this construction of the walls itself is a process of reconstructing their own culture by realizing their own communal space and territory. At the same time, the construction demand many workers, and the refugees can take part in building the shelters by making use of materials fatally resulted from the war/disaster. The communal structure in this camp would be a an actual case study for the post-war/disaster community: this spontaneous form of community could be a model and step of new cultural life in their society.
1.3 Minimum Personal Space
With the supplied curtains, they secure their personal space. This space will be surrounded by curtains hung from the ceiling system. In this space, they sleep, take a rest and keep their property. Keeping their property in the pockets attached to the curtain reinforce its strength as a protective wall. It provides both comfort psychologically and environmentally.
Living in this space will be a process to relearn social behavior in pre/post war/disaster life in which they “possess something”. The refugees have lost many things are temporarily forced to live in a primitive situation, but this project will also support and encourage them to recover their ordinary life.
2. Sheltering Process
Merits:
- Rapidity in distribution and evacuation
- Heavy structure such as debris resulted from the war/disaster will be procured locally, which lightens the weight of the material for transportation.
- Debris will be recycled in the construction of new buildings on the spot.
2.1 Distribution
The associations as UNHCR, will distribute those material stocks: steel wire mesh for wall, curtain for personal shelter, tent sheet, and steel pipe structure for the roof and flooring palettes which unite these materials for the transportation.
2.2 Construction
Materials are distributed according to number of family, organization of household....
Decision of the construction area and the plan of wall. Install the mesh wall with anchors, crush debris into the pieces required to the function of wall. And put them into the cage. (fix them with mortar or sands.) Cover some parts with the tent roof. Hook the curtain on the wire strung under the roof to keep personal territory, and put the properties into the pockets of curtains.
2.3 Evacuation
Evacuation of the wall and the classification of the materials: The curtain for personal space, the roof structure...
Fold and put back the roof structure in the containers by units.
Recycle the debris to the building construction.
2.4 Stock
In the containers, in the unit box which is made with floor palettes, folded roof structures, folded steel wire mesh, rolled personal curtains, and rolled tents for roof.
Architecture is supposed to provide shelter. In early 1999, nowhere was the need for shelter more critical than in the war-torn region of Kosovo. Hundreds of thousands were without a place to live. Their homes in ruins and the infrastructure of the region collapsed, the returning population needed immediate and highly-dispersed temporary housing.
Architecture for Humanity hosted an open competition to design five-year transitional housing for the returning people of Kosovo. The competition's goal was to foster the development of housing methods that would relieve suffering and speed the transition back to a normal way of life. Architects and designers from 30 different countries responded. We received more than 200 designs. From these, a jury selected 10 finalists and 20 notable entries. The proposal from Maeda and Yonekawa was one of these ten finalists.
